A colleague sent me a link to this excellent series "Indian Hospital", on Al-jazeera. I'm grateful.

I've not yet completed watching this movie, but one thing struck me while listening to it: that the rate of organ donation in India is particularly low. I'm not sure about the detailed statistics on this, but I'm thinking of making it mandatory for people to be organ donors before they get the right to comment on this blog.

Being an organ donor is SUCH A SIMPLE thing, and COSTLESS. I can't imagine why anyone would not donate their body for use after they are dead.

An organ is such a vital thing. Once we are dead we don't need our body or organs. We should be thrilled if someone can benefit from our dead body.

Organ donation is ONLY good. There is not one bad thing about it. No cost whatsoever, only gain. A PRICELESS gift that costs nothing!

If there is any manna from heaven, that would be a donated organ. 

The manna is FAKE. The organ is REAL. And has more beneficial properties than any manna, than ANY miracle.

Dear IT experts, is there a way I can require everyone who comments on this blog to confirm (through a tick box) that they are organ donors, before they comment on this blog? Any WordPress plugin that I can use? 

Here's information on organ donation in India [Source]

It is estimated that in India every year over 100,000 people are diagnosed to have kidney failure and would be needing a transplantation. Due to non-availability of organs only about 2,500 kidney transplants are done. The same thing happens for eye and other organ donations as well. 

Call Toll Free number across India for any information on organ donation or to donate organ at: 1919

Imp numbers for Delhi & Mumbai (using MTNL)

1. Information Service on Eye Bank is 1919 

2. Centralized Accident & Trauma Service 1099 

3. Information Service on Blood Bank is 1910 

4. Dial a Doctor 1911 

More information, below:

A couple of days after I had mentioned my discovery of the relationship between tight neck muscles, attributable to bad posture, and compression of the nerves that control eyeball muscles, I worked out an amazingly complex set of eye exercises that dramatically reduced inner eyeball muscle tension or spasms.

These eye exercises are very difficult to describe, and even the video that I have made, doesn't really show how these are actually done, and what one actually experiences while doing them. But I've got to move on now. There will be enough time to explain and teach these things later. In the meanwhile I've uploaded the detailed solution here: http://eyestrain.sabhlokcity.com/2012/04/the-solution-to-terrible-eye-pain-and-eye-strain-from-excessive-computer-use/.

As a result of the two discoveries made over the past few days, I am now able to sleep without pain. I used to put all sorts of things into my eyes to try to relieve at least some pain before going to sleep. Often I masked it by applying heaps of balm and other things. That is no longer necessary. I do not even put ordinary eyedrops before going to sleep. Getting very close to normalcy, although I do get up with some residual soreness. While there remains some tightness and burning, this is at an extremely mild level compared to what it was just about 8 days ago.

It is clear by now that I do not have dry eyes. I do not have any inflammation of the cornea. I do not have any allergic problem. I do not have bacterial problems.

Doctors I have seen were merely making up these alleged problems since they had no capacity to think more carefully. I suspect there is no mention of this kind of problem in their textbooks, so to that extent I can't perhaps blame them. But I'd have expected them to show SOME curiosity. That's expecting too much from HIGHLY PAID doctors whose only focus is on their pocket.

Nevertheless, despite the presence of this hugely incompetent medical profession, and despite the absence of any medical science that deals with this particular kind of horrid pain, I have survived this torture, and hope to return to full normalcy in the coming weeks and months.

From my experience of RSI, such things can take weeks if not months to resolve, after the cause has been determined. Main thing for me is to continue to discover NEW eye exercises (never invented yet by man) to deal with muscles that are located BEHIND the eye and can't be massaged manually.

The $600 worth of Restasis is lying in my fridge. I’m going to have to destroy the packets, since no one will probably take these back (these have come all the way from USA under a special permission accorded by TDA of Australia).

Anyway I get to fight again.

One more time. 

Against FALSE ideas – of economic "science", climate "science", and medical "science".

Yes, you can do it. Yes, it can be done.

Indeed, such an approach is the ONLY way to check out whether something can be done. Jugaad they call it in India. In other countries they call it innovation, even invention. There must be a daring spirit underpinning one's life, not the life of a coward.

And too much thinking without action must rank as our greatest enemy.

Many years ago  I came across the terms ignitor/killer phrase and checking the internet today I found a link.

I try my best to use these positive phrases in my life (both for myself and for others). To me the essence of success is the challenging JOURNEY.

The goal must be big, audacious. The outcome must be exhilarating – if achieved. The challenge must be daunting. Everyone must say that it can't be done. And then one must go ahead and DO IT. 

Everyone can do the obvious. It is only those who truly live life that achieve the impossible, and get full value out of this life.

Ignitor Phrases

• I like that!
• Keep talking, you’re on track.
• Go ahead… try it… keep going!
• We can do a lot with the idea.
• That’s great, how can we do it?
• That’s neat, what else do we need?
• How can we get support for it?
• What else do we need to consider?
• I think it will fly!
• Gee, why not! Wow! Let’s try it!
• Where would we be without you?
• Hey that’s a great idea!
• How can we build on that idea?
• Let’s get right on it.
• I know it will work!
• Why not???
• That’s the way to go!
• How can we help you? Let’s go!
• This is going to be fun!
• I love challenges like this!
• That’s like you!!!
• I agree!
• That would be interesting to try.
• That’s good! That’s a great idea!
• I’m glad you brought that up.
• That’s an interesting idea.
• It’s sure nice to have you with us!
• Look out world, here we come!

Now look at the demotivation created by the following phrases:

Killer Phrases

• The problem with the idea is…
• No way it will work here.
• Impossible under our current system,
• We just can’t get support for it!
• It’s not a bad idea, but…
• We’ve never done it that way before.
• You haven’t considered…
• We have too many projects now.
• A swell idea but…
• It won’t work!
• We haven’t the time!
• It’s not in the budget!
• We’ve tried that before!
• Not ready for it yet!
• All right in theory, can you put it inpractice?
• It needs more study.
• Somebody would have suggested itbefore if it were any good!
• Let’s discuss it at some other time.
• You don’t understand our problem.
• Why start anything now?
• You know, I think you are really dumb!
• Has anyone lese ever tried it?
• I just know it won’t work!
• Let’s be practical!
• Let’s form a committee!
• It’s been the same for ten years, why change?

I thought I'll extract from a few of my recent comments re: human knowledge.

We are the only form of intelligence in this universe

I'm by no means suggesting that any individual human being is particularly intelligent (we are not, being largely controlled by impulse and a latent brain that Kahneman calls System 1), but our System2 (rational brain) is the ULTIMATE form of intelligence in this universe.

Man is the ONLY intelligent being in this universe – based on all knowledge accumulated so far. There is no evidence of any other intelligent being. [Source] (Addendum: While this doesn't mean other forms don't exist: the inductive method can never guarantee that, one can be fairly confident of this fact: not just on the basis of observation but also on the basis of theory)

Our knowledge is rapidly approaching infinity

Our knowledge of the universe is now very close to complete. There are some things that we cannot yet penetrate (e.g. before the Big Bang) but plenty of theories based on the laws of nature (physics) do that.

I can’t say PRECISELY when man will gain FULL knowledge of the universe. It may never happen. But it is DEFINITELY going to happen.

I’m not saying we’ll easily get to 100 per cent, but we are now many times the level of knowledge we had just 300 years ago. Perhaps by an order of 5000 times. In every field of inquiry, man is now pushing frontiers.

You are probably aware of the asymptote. We can perhaps never get to the actual infinity (of knowledge) but we are now approaching it VERY RAPIDLY. The speed of approach may reduce as infinity gets closer but currently man’s knowledge is speeding up, not slowing down.

Life is entirely understandable (and therefore creatable)

I have absolutely NO DOUBT that the time is not very far away when man will create life, not just bacterial life but advanced life, human life, IN LABORATORIES. There are no mysteries beyond ANY point. All knowledge is purely material and 100 per cent knowable by man.

Anyway, that’s what has been the trend so far. In just one generation we now know many times what the previous generation knew (and more accurately). If this rate of growth of knowledge continues (there is no reason to believe it won’t), man will have mastered fusion within two to three generations (leading to the availability of virtually INFINITE energy). That would also create sufficient power to reproduce the environment for the creation of life.

Life is a particular combination of molecules that fights entropy. Once created, it (figuratively) can’t be destroyed since it has the ability to reproduce. I have no doubt that life is entirely knowable.

Addendum

1) I'm NOT saying that we are nearing the end of our journey. Another 100 years later we will be much closer. That's all I'm saying.

2) I'm NOT saying that just because we are intelligent we will learn to live together in peace.

3) I'm NOT saying that just because we know how good societies must be run (through principles of liberty) that we'll necessarily do so.

Our instinct is (often) in opposition to our reason. That will be the main barrier to our reaching perfection in our lives.

The last time I literally fought for my life was when I faced extreme RSI pain and burning across the upper body. For those who don't understand chronic pain it will sound odd that someone could use such strong words ("fighting for life"). But when you appear ABSOLUTELY fine from outside but are burning with pain inside, things become really bad: worse (at least mentally) than if you had a major bleeding injury that was evident to everyone. You suffer massive endless pain and burning, and other deplorable sensations, but none can see anything wrong with you.

That's when I hunted from pillar to post for solutions: going to one "doctor" (medical quack, with medical degree or otherwise) after another. Three and a half years later, after tens of REALLY STUPID "doctors" had miserably failed in even providing the remotest diagnosis, and after I had spent endless ours studying the medical and other literature (I read as widely as I possibly could), I finally found the possible answer that led to the remedy. 

Today I'm almost pain free (not entirely since I do type excessively – once again) because I have mastered the relevant exercises and fitness regime. Pain comes back if I don't exercise rigorously every second day. But my satisfaction is that I fought back for my life and won. I detest the ignorant medical profession and give credit to qualities of PERSISTENCE, STAMINA and CRITICAL THINKING for my fortune in finally finding the answer.

This time, though, the fight is much harder. 

This time the issue is eye pain and terrible burning, stabbing and other deplorable sensations (photosensitivity, etc), and unrelenting headache. One swims in pain the whole day, but even worse, this pain then refers across the entire body, including to the legs and feet (a sensation of great irritation and nausea) which makes one feel like fainting. Exhaustion sets in virtually the moment one wakes up.

The FOOL medical profession has been of no help whatsoever. These people SIMPLY DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY or patience to understand anything complex.

They have crammed for their exams and know only their own little patch (and that too, very poorly). Blind to the complexity of the human body, they blabber nonsense, charge big money, and send off patients into the ether for the patients to either commit suicide, or to find the remedy themselves – if they can. 

Sometimes I feel the world might as well not have had "doctors".

Despite this terrible reality of the world in which we live, I would like to reach out to millions of others who have been BADLY let down by the medical profession.

Let me assure you: there is ALWAYS an answer. The body is a PHYSICAL entity (machine) that can be understood and mastered.

For instance, I have full confidence in my ability to find an answer through careful scientific analysis and experiment. The trick is to understand all causes, test everything that is possible, try out all possible remedies, and then determine correlations between particular treatments and the consequent sensations.

Unfortunately, determining ALL causes is very hard. That's what takes the longest (and that's where doctors primarily fail: they do NOT try out all causes). This generally involves reading up on MASSIVE amounts of medical SCIENCE, but also patients' experiences on google, etc.

An example is the analysis I have been conducting of my eyes. After nearly 18 months of suffering, I'm coming closer to the cause. I found, today, an online mindmap tool. Here's my current mindmap.

(click for larger image)

This mindmap only provides highlights of possible causes and potential remedies. Underpinning this is EXTENSIVE scientific analysis – on a scale that doctors perhaps CAN'T COMPREHEND. Since it will take me too long to document that analysis, I wont' try.

But unfortunately, such analysis is only the beginning. I'm still far from determining the cause, leave alone the solution.

Since I don't have any answer, why do I publish this?

Mainly to provide courage and support to those who, like me, are suffering GREATLY, but have no one in this whole world to help them. They are on their own. To such people I say: Trust IN YOURSELF. If you apply your mind carefully enough, you will ultimately find the answer. 

At least one can try. Pain is just another part of life.

Jack pointed me to this video (below), which contains a range of assertions about curing eye diseases, and includes recommendations about use of a range of ingredients including cow urine.

Might sound a bit odd, but the video is a pleasure to watch. Ramdev is a great communicator. He can teach a lesson or two to the very best in the world on public speaking.  

Ramdev is therefore VERY good at transmitting ancient Indian knowledge.

Whether his recommendations work or not is a different matter. 

Given the TOTAL FAILURE of modern medicine in my case, I'm inclined to try out at least a few of his remedies (excluding the cow urine based). And pranayama is always great. 

Indeed, I had already discovered (on my own initiative) some useful properties of manuka honey and lemon juice, but not in the combination he describes. I've also used triphala a bit, but not as diligently as he has recommended.

When modern medicine totally fails, people have to resort to alternative medicine. No Restasis for me yet. $600 worth of medicine can lie in my fridge for another few months.

I'm very sceptical about a cure (since I've tried honey, lemon and triphala in the past and the solution was not permanent), but given the persuasive style of the Baba, I will seriously work on his recommendations.

My comments against monopolist doctors have offended some people, such as doctor friend, Yadu Singh, who believes that: “Condemning whole medical profession and ignoring their role and contribution to people’s well being is grossly offensive, irresponsible and objectionable!”

My comments were exceptionally strong but I believe that I also provided exceptionally strong evidence to support my comments. I’m in the business of truth, and if I’m wrong I’ll gladly apologise for any unwarranted offence caused. But if what I'm saying is the truth (which I believe it is), and the truth offends someone, then so be it. That has (unfortunately for the opponents of the truth) been the nature of truth all along.

But you will ask? Who is to determine the truth? The answer: Only each of us using our own mind, attempting to understand what the other person is saying and paying attention to the evidence.

So please do me the favour of understanding my arguments and evidence carefully before you think I've gone overboard. 

With this preface, let me elaborate.

1) My issue is NOT with medical science but with the monopoly profession of ‘doctors’

Let me remind us all, that the biological science doctors make use of belongs to ALL OF HUMANITY, and was NOT invented by doctors. Doctors are mere dispensers of that knowledge, just like a petrol station attendant who dispenses petrol: he is not the creator of the petrol! A mere milkman, a mere retailer of biological science, is a doctor. 

Scientific knowledge is universal and does not restrict its supply to a particular profession. Science does not deal with the business of “prescriptions” or monopoly rights for a particular profession. That is sheer POLITICS, a desire to grab super-normal profits, not science.

In real life, it is a range of trades and guilds that create monopolies and thus pad their own pockets.

Every profession has tried, at one time or other, to pad its own pockets by restricting entry. At one time, it was felt that typing was a specialised skill that required special “qualifications”. There was perhaps a guild of typists (OK, I don't know this for sure but I imagine such a thing might have existed). Later, there probably was a guild of petrol dispensers, who objected if anyone dispensed petrol by themselves. Today, however, people type their own letters and dispense their own petrol.

The point being that what ONE human can do, ANY other human can do, with appropriate care. And medical science does NOT need a specialised dispenser (doctor). ANYONE can dispense it – provided they put in the requisite effort. 

We don't need a priest to reach God (assuming God exists). We don't need an intermediary between us and medical science.

I am an avid devotee of medical science, an active reader of medical literature. My first passion was biology, a passion that has never left me for a single day. Brain science attracts me the most, of all aspects of science, but all kinds of biological or any other science remains my first love, my fascination, my passion.

Research papers published by pure scientists of the human body are usually very unpretentious, just like papers of any other good science. Having done a fair bit of statistical work (and science) in my own life, I appreciate and largely agree with the way medical science operates.

In almost all cases, a multiplicity of confounding factors are involved in any study, and academic papers are full of words of caution about the applicability of their findings. Humility is the mark of medical science. And on almost no subject in medical science does consensus exist – which is usually the way good science works. Knowledge grows VERY slowly and incrementally. There is never an end to learning.

Unfortunately, when you visit a doctor you will NEVER get the sense that you are meeting a scientist. All you will sense is a pretend “know-all” who doesn’t want to know either about your symptoms or your own study and analysis, but wants to bombard you with his opinions which are often VERY, VERY wrong. A doctor is often the exact opposite of a scientist (the latter being marked by a proclivity to ask questions and display ignorance).

But it is not this attitude of doctors that bothers me. All “experts” with a few silly pieces of paper (like my PhD "degree", for example) tend to have foolish, grandiose notions about themselves. That’s just human nature. We can't change such attitudes. 

What bothers me is other things, the more substantive things, the attempt by doctors to hijack our liberty, to hijack our birthright to CARE FOR OUR OWN BODY THE WAY WE WANT, using all knowledge and tools we can command with our money, brain, and power. One feels like a chicken caught inside a small cage when one visits the average doctor, not an equal human entitled to be carefully heard and answered.

2) Doctors are NOT custodians or ‘owners' of medical science

I know I've implied this above, but it bears repetition: Medical science is not rocket science (even rocket "science" is essentially trivial). All it needs is diligence. Anyone with basic intelligence can readily understand medical science with some care and diligence (including reading academic medical science publications), and become up-to-speed on the latest state of knowledge.

Doctors are not custodians of "secret" medical knowledge.  

And so, wherever I find doctors fumbling like bumble headed fools, incapable of understanding my problem or finding a solution, I take recourse to my own mind's capacities by investing time to download, print, and read all major, latest journal articles on the subject.

I primarily read original, peer-reviewed medical science literature, something that most doctors in that discipline may often not be aware of (since they don't necessarily have the same incentive).

I go to the source of knowledge (the "Bible") circumventing ignorant "priests". Let doctors remember that knowledge is READILY AVAILABLE today, and they do not have any monopoly over the human brain which is available readily to ALL of humanity, including (shockingly!) to their patients! 

3) The average doctor is seriously INCOMPETENT

There is a simple prediction of basic economics: that if you block competition in a market, that industry will become uncompetitive, and its practitioners incompetent.

In BFN I have shown how IAS officers (the smartest of the smart anywhere in the world) become seriously incompetent after a few years in their highly protected sinecures. So also doctors ACROSS THE WORLD quickly become incompetent given the protections and anti-competitive restrictions they have fought for, and applied to their profession.

As a result, a few years after graduating they perhaps become unaware of the latest information in their own subject, and are therefore unable to engage in scientific discussion with their patients, particularly patients who, upon not getting cured, want to engage in a SCIENTIFIC conversation as equals.

In my case perhaps 98 per cent of my visits to doctors have been infructuous; wasted; leading to no improvement. Doctors either fail to diagnose, or they fail to diagnose correctly, or if they do diagnose correctly (rarely), they sometimes fail to prescribe correctly. And I'm not even talking of human errors here. 

If any other profession had such a dismal performance record (imagine pilot who crashed his plane 98 per cent of the time), that profession would have been cut loose by the public long ago, and sent back to the drawing board.

But not doctors, for they have formed, over the years, a very strong monopolistic guild. And they have engaged in the worst forms of regulatory capture, protecting their interests at the expense of the citizen.

4) Did Hippocrates ask for state control and protection of the medical profession?

Hippocrates did not demand government-protected licensing and monopoly rights for the medical profession (or if he did, I'm not aware of it). 

Doctors and hakims in the past, emerged from amongst those who liked medical science and spent time to learn it. Once they learnt the science they did NOT demand government licensing or monopoly rights. They set up a shop, like a barber or grocer, and allowed their customers to come and decide whether their wares were good value. Good doctors then became rich, and bad doctors went bankrupt. There was no destruction of human liberty.

But today all that has changed. Doctors today can’t imagine a situation without the use of COERCIVE POWERS of government to compel citizens to forfeit their liberty and rights to doctors. 

It is this monopoly that I strongly object to, not the fact that there should be doctors, and not medical science.

I want to know this: why do doctors need a “right” to “prescribe”?

Dr. Yadu Singh says, “You are entitled to self-harm but harming others is definitely a crime”.

I’m not saying that I want to “prescribe” medicines to others! When did I EVER ask for any “right” to prescribe for others? Do note that I don’t want that “right” to be given to doctors, either. Doctors are welcome to suggest a particular medicine, but not use the dictatorial language of "PRESCRIPTION" (do you now sense how terribly objectionable and patronising this word is?). Who the HELL are you to "prescribe" anything to me? Even a priest does not prescribe, he merely recommends.

All I’m saying is that I must have the right to buy whatever medicine I WANT TO, based on my own anaylsis.  

And I want ALL regulation that claims to prevent citizens from harming themselves to go. As JS Mill wrote:

That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right.

Why do doctors use the coercive power of the state to block my BIRTH RIGHT over my own body and mind – so long as I don’t harm others. That is the basic principle of liberty that I’m talking about. 

I trust no doctor will object to REPEALING laws that create monopoly rights for doctors, and for making medical drugs available in the open market to CITIZENS, just like any other product. 

I agree that no child should have the right to buy drugs, so yes, by all means restrict access to medical drugs to adults over 18. But to have adults over 18 PREVENTED COERCIVELY from buying medical drugs by forcing them to pay doctors for a “prescription” is a travesty of human liberty.

That is why doctors – under the current dispensation – are best called rapacious (since they charge big money for information that is readily available) and unaccountable (they refuse to given any guarantee of a cure). 

Would you not agree, Dr. Yadu Singh that someone who: 

a) charges rapaciously for a "service" that is not needed (the “service” of restricting access to a pharmacy!), 

b) charges VERY heavily without delivering the product (the cure)

is basically an enemy of our liberty, of our humanity?

I ask doctors to show good faith by:

a) REFUSING to “prescribe”, but suggest particular drugs or courses of treatment to patients.

b) DEMANDING the repeal of all laws that give doctors monopoly powers

c) REFUSING to charge without first delivering the cure (i.e. you cure me first, THEN I pay).

Doctors can also show good faith to humanity by humbly discussing MEDICAL SCIENCE with their patients, and guiding their patients on their journey of learning about their own body.

Surely you’ll agree, Dr. Yadu Singh, that Hippocrates would have approved of these simple suggestions?

All I’m asking for is QUALITY, INTEGRITY and RESPECT. Is that too much to ask of the medical profession?

"Parkash Singh Badal, 84, will become chief minister of the agrarian state for the fifth time."

Congratulations, Mr Badal!

I have a fond personal memory of Mr Badal, from an age when we all have great hope from our leaders.

Sometime in 1978 or so, being the most 'decorated' fine artist/painter in DAV college (having received a wide array of medals and awards across numerous university and state-level competitions), I was commissioned by the college principal to paint Mr Badal's oil portrait.

I was given a photo and asked to paint. My painting was then presented to Mr Badal (Chief Minister of Panjab) by the principal during a major college function in which Mr Badal was chief guest.

I wonder whether Mr Badal still owns that portrait somewhere inside his pile of momentos! I'd like to take a photograph of that portrait for my personal records. I've not painted for decades now, and that was one of my finer portraits.

Anyway, just a random thought. A reminiscence.

I'm sure the Akalis could do with a bit more of liberty, though. I wouldn't hold them as examples of good governance.

Above all I think of myself as a scientist. Not a good enough scientist, true, but a scientist nevertheless, by training and by practice. Economics, which I practice, is, to me, the science of choice (and scarcity) in human society. I spurn any alleged "economics" that is not based on well tested foundations. That is why Keynesian and "socialist" "economics" is, to me, a form of quackery, pure alchemy: to be shunned like the plague.

Everything in the world has an explanation, a cause.

Nothing – not even the "soul" – exists without physical causes. (I have never believed in a "soul". Although I am unable to eliminate the possibility of God – possibly an Advaitic, i.e. broadly pantheistic – "God", the concept of a private soul is clearly a delusion.)

I draw all causes (including human actions) from the first cause (big bang). Unfortunately, the science of the big bang is not as robust as one would have liked it to be. It doesn't entirely explain the way the universe is behaving. Hence dark matter, dark energy, dark flow. But the standard cosmic model is good enough as a first approximation. From it arises everything we know. (There are many plausible models re: whence the big bang came from, and I'm inclined to the infinity of universes concept since energy can't be created nor destroyed.)

This leads to the issue of vacuum. The entire universe is pure vacuum. In the vacuum found inside each atom, a tiny amount of energy courses at great speed – almost certainly at speeds greater than the speed of light: eternally, without pause, captured like a moth in a bottle, inside a tiny spherical distortion of space (this "sphere" is, of course, a gross simplification, given the properties of the quantum). 

So if we are merely vacuum and energy "hooked up" through chemical processes, what can we say about the "soul" or "self"? The Atman?

Well, it too must be mere mechanics, a play of energy, a bunch of atoms dancing in inter-connected ways.

I've ALWAYS thought that human consciousness is ENTIRELY biological, based on the brain. When parts of the brain stop functioning, key parts of our mind/consciousness stop working. Our soul is snipped. We don't exist even though we live. (I've discussed the human brain at some length in the first chapter of DOF, for I believe that without understanding ourselves, we can't understand society.)

Neurology has thrown up wonderful discoveries in the field of psychology and economics. We are truly blessed to be living in these times, as science shines its torch below each rock of ignorance.

The title of this blog post has been motivated by V. S. Ramachandran's The Tell-Tale Brain.

I've read this marvellous book just recently, and I must say it is a thriller. A thriller more exciting than any novel you'll ever read. 

Most of you would have read this book by now, it being so popular. But if by chance you haven't yet read it, please do so. 

You'll NEVER think about the soul as a "spiritual" entity, ever again.

Each part of the soul ("self") can be broken down into parts, and we now clearly know that our BRAIN is the soul. 

I look forward to the complete dissection of the human soul (self) in the coming decades. 

I came across a lovely article: Talent Isn’t Everything: Persistence Is.

Just one short extract: 

“You need to work on your craft, Therese,” a very wise writing mentor told me when he took me under his wing. “And this is how you do it….”

He instructed me to read books on style, take classes, and analyze the technique of writers I respected.

He didn’t sit back in his chair and make fun of me like the arrogant professor I had, like a former boss of mine did, or like a self-absorbed judge does. That’s not helpful at all.

I know I'm a very ordinary writer of the English language (and a miserable writer in Hindi – although I won an across-Hyderabad essay competition in Hindi in high school, long ago!). Thus, when I read my early writings today, I wince. In fact even when I read my manuscript DOF I often wince! I surely can do better. I will do better.

I found the best hint on how to write in one of Gurcharan Das's books in which he wrote about Strunk and White's Elements of Style. That was just a few years ago, and since then I've determined to improve my writing.  I haven't yet come even close to my goal, particularly because I write just too much and never have time to revise. But one day I will surely write better.

The point is this: that writing is an ESSENTIAL skill that everyone on FTI must develop. Mastery over the written word is the first step towards mastery over the spoken word. 

I know a number of people on FTI with outstanding technical skills (e.g. degrees from IITs/ IIMs, international universities). But some of them may need to upgrade their writing skills if they are to have any serious chance of changing India. To them I'd suggest this: read Strunk and White. And practice writing. Start a blog and try it out. Then write for the newspapers. Write as much as you possibly can.

Also I suggest mastery over at least one Indian language. The best way for that would be to read the most elegant writers in that language. And write blog posts. And in the media.

Leadership is not born. It is developed. Through persistence. Keep doing it!