Blog Post #106 - Whom am I is the wrong Question and real question is ...

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

-  Albert Einstein



When a man saw Buddha after he was enlightened he asked       ' What are you?' and not 'Who are you?' His answer I am Buddha  (the awakened).

This man - Siddhartha got up from his sleep . Did you?

Till Dec 27 2014 all my blogs will continue to be spiritual and religious . Skip this post and don't read the rest of the blog....


I mean it..

So , you still here? . That means you like to read boring blog posts - welcome to my world and my expertise !

Most of the time when you visit a Hindu Temple you will see the Verse - Tat Twan Asi mostly above Ayappa's  statue. 

This post will cover a bit about Tat Twan Asi (You are that) and Aham Brahmasmi( Iam infinite truth).



Let's start with more boring and deep discussions. Let me digress a bit about Spirituality and Religion.

Digress  -  a new word I acquired into my vocabulary  and have been waiting for an opportunity to use it..

Digress - leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing..
and I like to digress. 

Once you find a new word you will find it everywhere and will be tempted to use it (I got my opportunity - hey!!!)

How about you? Do you stay with the topic? - Again realize I have read about or trying to experiment on 'Being in other person's shoe- What ever that means' and ask ' What do you think?'

Why this transformation?

Let's give credit to Swami Sarvapriyananda -  a dynamic young monk of the Ramakrishna Math and Swami Vimalananda of Chimaya Mission- Learn more at http://chinmayauk.org/our-leaders/swamini-vimalananda/ 

The reason these people are important to me is because they are teaching (or trying to teach) Vedanta.

A vast topic and I have less patience for long lectures unless the speaker is like me(I always think I present interesting topics - don't you?)

There is no distinction between spirituality and religion. You can be spiritual about Religion and Religious about being Spiritual - but these are just word plays and useless to common (wo)man.

What is more important is to ask the question - Who am I ? - Great Saint of Arunachala Ramana Maharshi used to say

1. Ask the question ' Who am I?'
2. Then ask the question - ' Who is asking the question Whom am I?'




If you read the above 2 lines and wanted to continue to read I will not let you...STOP..

STOP... Re-read the lines above and for your convenience I have them below

1. Who Am I ?
2. Who is asking 'Who Am I?'

Ramana knew Vedanta and knew how to condense and deliver in a form that is practical and impossible!

What? yes. It is practical to sit and ask these questions and impossible to get the answers. 

If you answered the questions by yourself then you are a 'Yogi'. 

If you are like Vivekananda you might want to try serving people  - 'Blowing air through nose practicing breathing is important but servicing people is more important' was his message and he claimed - 'Doing good is better than being good'.


You have an option to serve humanity after you become a Yogi but for now continue reading this blog to get some help from Adi Shankara.

First - this example that Swami Vimalananda gives in her speech.



'This is a watch' - she pulls out a watch and then says ' This is my watch'.

You know it - but the watch doesn't!

If you laugh and say ' Ha Ha funny/Silly  but not profound' she continues (and I paraphrase)

'This is my Baby' - you know it and the Baby doesn't!

In Life - once we have kids we forget the kids are through us and not from us. Think again - You came to Earth through your parents and not just because of them.

The real Question that we keep asking is ' Who am I?' Let's take the answer first approach and the answer is Neti Neti - "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that"

Let's use the basic approach from Science and Vedanta

"The Knower is different from the Known"

We learnt about the watch and baby and learnt 'My watch' and 'My baby' are not the same as watch and baby. For the baby and watch it is the same but for you - you have claimed ownership of it which the baby or watch may not know!

Now apply that to our experience. Seeing is believing.

Now you see - see through your eyes your phone or computer.

You know it is your phone or your computer (OK !! -got that idea let's move on!) now you are different from your phone or computer (big deal  -  I knew that - I don't need a blog post to tell me that!)

Your Eyes and your phone are different.
Your eyes are being experienced by your mind.

Your mind knows if there is eye pain, eye closing or opening or itching. So you are not your 'Eye' (or any other body part).

Even if your hand or leg is cut you are still you. When they perform open heart surgery or brain surgery(open brain surgery?) - they practically remove your heart and brain.

So you are not the body part. 

You are the mind!

But.. you change your mind. Your mind 'sees' the eye, hears the 'ear' et all but even that is not stable. 

You liked music louder when you were a kid. You also liked playing with sand.

Do you now? 

Have you changed your mind on anything lately? If you are married you mind  might have been  - by force!(by your spouse!)

There is a reason Spouse is called better half - that leaves you as the worst half as the  whole is neutral! (Digress!)

Your 10 year old body is not same as this one. 
So you were not the body.
You are not the mind ( we even digressed to learn that!)

'Neti Neti'  - "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that" .

You have taken your baby step into Vedanta ( I have 2 extra steps than you and I am superior at this point atleast in terms of baby steps!)


Then what are you?

So the question changed - from Who am I ? to What am I?

Enter 'Turiya' and Adi shankara to your rescue!!! (this is not THE answer but A answer - in Sanata Dharma we have a buffet and a spicy food for non sweet lover like me -- do you know I don't like sweets - Digress!)

Turiya - the experience of pure consciousness.

Swami Sarvapriyananda explains these very well in IIT kanpur

Swami Sarvapriyananda at IITK - "Who Am I?" according to Mandukya Upanishad-Part 1 - Link

The story he talks about is about Janaka and his dream. Google for King Janaka and Ashtavakra.

King Janaka has a bad dream and he lost a battle and suffered a lot after his life was spared and woke up and asked “Was that a dream, or is this a dream?"

After sometime Saint Ashtakvakra explains to Janaka - Both are true. The dream may not be true but you did experience it (What is you - we will come to it)

You experience the waking world , the dreaming world and a Deep sleep without dream (and wake up and know  - you are you!). Imagine Tamil ,Telugu and Hindi  movies  the Protagonist  (fancy word for Hero!) wakss up and says ' Where am I ' and sometimes 
' Who am I '. The real you should wake up with or without a dream and know the real you and the world if not you will be considered mad (If you understood this and start explaining you will  be considered mad too!).

Turiya is what knows the waker,dreamer and the deep sleeper. Like your school teacher of college professor who knows all these 3 types of students in her class!


Adi Shankara who questioned everything and integrated Sanatha Dharma into one unit (Known to people as Sindu/Hindu Religion).

Sanatha Dharma means has 'Eternal' Religion.Another post another topic (Digress)

Welcome back to learning about yourself and Adi Shankara  - the leader, the integrator, mathematician (see my posts on triangles) and great Linguist.

Adi Shankara says the language is useful for

1. Jathi - species - belongs to a class. Cow is a cow. You are a man or a Woman or a human being.

2. Guna - Quality. Red flower! Gunam . You have black pen.

3. Kriya - call the cook or driver! - function. You are a computer Nerd or a Dancer or a Pilot

4. Samanda - relation. This car belongs to me, Watch belongs to my wife. He is 'my' friend.

5. Convention - Prakasha - Once you can find it as an unique thing you get to name it!. Your own name given by your parents u- to name you they had to point 'you' out and 'set you'  apart from others!  

Now Turiya (remember pure conscious)  that knows waker,dreamer and deep sleeper - that is you and that is not something that language can come to you aid to explain.

If this was difficult to understand it is meant to me. 

That is why these are called Vedanta!. 


So answer to what am I is Turiya and we can also call it Shiva!

Shiva is pure joy.

You have been happy - the last time you got 'that' thing . A car or when you got married or had a baby - you were happy. But you were not pure joy.

To experience pure Joy you need to know that you are 'Turiya'


To conclude let us explore the great song that Adi Sharkara has written to explain this to us all
Video link here .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AHBSi2_Dpc

From http://livingunbound.net/inspiration/atmastakam_shivoham/

I got this translation for ATMASTAKAM or Nirvana Shatakam or Shivoham

I am not the mind, intellect, thought, ego, or some form of the supreme being; I neither have ears, nor tongue and I neither have nose (nostrils) nor eyes; I am not the sky, earth, light or the wind; I am the fortunate, joyful, supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss.
I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.

I am not the most essential air that everyone breathes. Nor a part of essential five gases related to bodily functions (which are Prana, Aparna, Vyana, Udana and Samana). I am not the seven-fold material (Rasa, Rakta, Mamsa, Medas, Asthi,Majja and Shukra) that help in body’s physical development, I am not part of five coverings that help to build up the personality (food, air, mind, knowledge or wisdom and pleasure). Nor am I the five organs of action (which are speech/mouth, hands, feet, reproductive and rectum), I am the fortunate, joyful, supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss.
I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.

I have no likes or dislikes; Not I have any greed or delusion; I have no pride or arrogant vanity; Nor am I jealous of anyone or in competition with anyone ; I do not need the four main necessities of life (which are Dharma (Law of Life), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desires) and Moksha (Liberation); I am the fortunate, joyful,supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss.
I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.


I am not attached to any righteousness or sin; I have neither pleasure nor sorrow; I have no need for any Mantra; I have no need for pilgrimages ; I have no need for any sacred scriptures; nor do I perform any sacrifise or rituals; I am neither the meal nor the one who consumes or what is consumed;
I am the fortunate, joyful,supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss.
I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.


I have no fear of death, nor do I have caste distinctions; I neither have a father nor mother because I was never born; I have neither kin/relatives nor friends; I have no gurus and nor am I a disciple; I am the fortunate, joyful, supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss.
I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.
 
I am free of thoughts and beyond imagination since I have no form; I am all pervading and exist everywhere; I am the king of all sense-organs; I am always impartial to everything and everyone,; I am free from everything and I have no attachment to anything; I am the fortunate, joyful, supreme being who is the very emblem of truth, knowledge and eternal bliss.
I am consciousness and bliss. I am Shiva, I am Shiva.

Let Joy be with you and you be joyful
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #105 - Chess Strategy game and my article which got published in Austin South Asian(in its entirety)

I am officially a published ('famous?') writer - my article about chess got published at Austin south Asian

http://www.austinsouthasian.com/…/ASA.Nov_.14.light_.versio…

Page 19

Here it the article - 
Chess- Strategy Board Game

Siva Manikanteswaran rrchess@outlook.com  

Welcome to game of Kings, Queens and the royal army.

With 64 squares 32 dark and 32 white 32 pieces and 32 spaces,16 white and 16 black pieces the Magic is inside the board and inside the chess player’s brains.  

Chess is often cited by psychologists as an effective way to improve memory function.  Also allowing the mind to solve complex problems and work through ideas, it is no wonder that chess is recommended in the fight against Alzheimer’s. According to research, Test scores improved by 17.3% for students regularly engaged in chess classes, compared with only 4.6% for children participating in other forms of enriched activities.

Universal Game

Chess originated in India as Shatranj and become popular in Persia (Iran) and from Arabs it spread to Europe. The word "Checkmate" in Chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means “the King is dead." While Bobby Fischer(USA) , Viswanathan Anand (India)  and Magnus Carlson (Norway) make the sport appear as a global sport for the past few decades this game has been dominated by Russians. The first chess game played between space and earth was on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 Russian crew. The game ended in a draw.  

Women Rock chess

While Women in chess is a rarity the Polgar Sisters are a classic example of how gender has nothing to do with this game . Susan Polgar was women's world champion , Sofia Polgar an International Master and Judith Polgar a Grand Master – all 3 sisters earning their place in history of chess.

How to get your kids started in playing tournaments

1.      You need to visit USCF(US Chess Federation) website and get a USCF ID for your child/yourself.

2.      Buy a tournament chess set

3.      Buy a tournament approved clock

4.      Algebric Notation book

Positional vs. Tactical power

Tactical play as knowing what to do when there's something to be done and positional play as knowing what to do when there's nothing to be done. Tactics require deep calculations while position requires deep understanding Tactics flow from good position and good positions rely on tactics.

 Setup your chess board and solve this

Algebraic notation (1. Rf8+ Qg8 2. Qxg8#) is how chess games are recorded and replayed. It is simple to learn and it is required ‘language’ to explore the games and books of chess.

Books

“Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess“ is considered a good book for beginners while “My 60 Memorable Games” by Bobby Fischer is considered a good book for really advanced players.

Online

Chess.com is a great website which allows you learn, practice and chess. Chesskid.com is safe for kids and allows kids to play against other kids for fun.

Where can my kid practice chess in Austin area?

Other than school chess clubs there are three popular places where your kids can safely practice chess - Spicewood library (Saturday afternoons), Cedar park library (Sundays afternoon) and George Town library (Wednesday evening).

Keep playing chess

Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #104 - What can a monk teach about Decision theory and latest in Neuroscience?

Swamy Saram Ayappa Saram

"I am impressed"

Here is the link to the video I am referring to in this blog...Click Here

I have undertaken a vow (Viradam for Lord Ayappa) for 41 days for various reasons. 41 days - I am supposed to think good thoughts, words and actions. So I decided to not read or listen to my books except a few with my own rationale as what can be considered beyond.

After  a very long I felt 'connected', 'blessed' and smiled a lot. This was due to the fact that I was listening to folks from Ramakrishna Mutt my favourite religious order and these new age - facebook,whatsapp,mobile phone referring monks who have powerpoint,jokes and facts for new generation and an indepth understanding on Hindu Scriptures.

So I decided to listen to these lectures from Ramakrishna Mutt folks as opposed to TED Talks ! But guess what - the new age monks of India refer to TED talks as much as I like them to!

The talks were held in IIT Kanpur - another institute I respect and always envy!


Think about Intelligence meeting Spirituality!

IIT Kanpur holding talks from RamaKrishna Mutt.

When I was in my college BITS Pilani we had ISKON monks who came with Powepoints from Bhagavat Gita and lectured/argued about - Is light a way or a particle? They were referring to passages from Bhagavat Gita and I don't recall the conclusion.

Do you know if Light is a way or a particle?

Lots of physics scientist have worked on it and there is a conclusion guided by Einstein which said something like ' Both the realities are right? . Sometimes light is a particle and at other time light is a wave .

If there is confusion about light - something we see everyday then what about being enlightened?

Reaching God? There must be more complex theory to help us with this .

For now it will be interesting to note that there are 4 ways to reach god (according to yet another holy text of Hindus -Upanishads  )

Raja Yoga(Meditation) - the branch that Buddhist like and have included in their religious practice.

Gnanaa Yoga(Knowledge) - I named my blog inspired that useful Knowledge that can be acted upon must be shared and for some they can reach my posts and attain divinity! My posts are so enlightening (at least to me!) but you will not attain GOD reading my posts.

Karma Yoga(Duty and Action) - Just do your stuff - what ever you are supposed to do.  There is no need to think about God but there is also need not to think about the fruits of the efforts and thanklessness from other people you serve or you think you serve.

Bhakti Yoga(Devotion) - Praying on a constant basis and praying in groups. Habits! - reinforced by a group . Islam has lot of this aspects into its practice. Buddhist like 'Sangam' and Christians have Sunday 'Mass';

Note  -
Raja Yoga and Bhakti Yoga needs GOD attain salvation.

KarmaYoga and GnanaaYoga don't need GOD to attain salvation.

What is attaining salvation mean ?( you guessed it. I will write another post later once I learn what it means!)

You don't need GOD for Raja Yoga(meditation) and Karma Yoga(Duty).

For Gnaanayoga you have pick up Tohrah or Koran or Bible or Infinite Hindu scripts including Bhagat Gita, Upanishads(vedanta are explanation to Upanishad!),Vedas as you will need a text to read and all these text will have GOD in it (mostly as a male).

For Bhakti Yoga you need a place to workship and a group and you will end up with GOD in it.

I will write a separate blog about Bhakthi Yoga.

Let's get back to Decision Theory (after few more side tracks distractions and brain dumps!)

Humans need 21 days to form a habit and 14 days to break a habit.

So in 41/41 days I can effectively create 2 habits. I can break 3 habits.

Wow that means I can have impact on 5 impacts.

So I am up for a challenge.

New habits to be created
1. Start Waking up early - 1 Habit to be create
2. Start Meditating/receiting mantras 2 times a day- 1 habit to create

Break the following habits
1. Stop Eating fast
2. Stop Getting angry
3. Stop sleeping late (This ties with start waking up early!. To wake up late you need to sleep early)

Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don’t, and How to Make Any Change Stick (public library) — A book I liked a lot is the onne with this idea and many many more important Ones.

Now coming to back to my other blog - Do you know how to tell a story?

Refer to my Blog

Blog Post #99 - Do you know how to tell a story well? 

Here is the interesting part always every story needs a decision - DECISION.

The main character needs to decide - enough is enough I want to create this or Destroy/Stop that.

STOP or START or CONTINUE something!


To create a habit you need to make a DECISION. Now another book that comes to my mind and a book that I bought (Finally!) is Kelly McGonigal's The WillPower Instinct. This book talks about something which I love -
Imagine This

Joe and Rajeev decide to wake up every day at 5am and set their alarm in the night. These characters are called Planning Joe and Planning Rajeev. Nice people with noble intentions. They go to sleep and at 5 am the 2 people who are sleeping comfortably are Executing Joe and Executing Rajeev.
These are not the same people who set the alarm even though they occupy the same body!.

Interesting - how come? Planning Soul and Executing Soul are different people and our friends hit the snooze and decide they will do it TOMORROW!

Gauri Nanda - a gradudate student in MIT worked on this problem and came up with a cloack - Clocky!

The alarm will set off in the morning and run away literally making you go mouse chase/hunt - hunting the clock.

Now what does this have to do with a Monk talking in IIT? What would he know about decision theory?

I felt like slap on the face when he introduced this concept with such an elegant concept from Katha Upanishad.

He asked a student to decide between A or B.

The student promptly chose A.(and thought they decided on A)

The monk said this is not deciding.

Follow along--- fellows.

When you chose A that is not called DECISION that is more like choosing.

His talks were inline with major Generals who have won major battles - a chinese general and Cortez share the same story.The General asked his soldiers and in some version he himself set fire to all his ships telling his ships there is no way to go home now. Kill ,capture or die. If you kill or capture the enemy you can build a ship using them (using their help if they have agreed or enslave and make them work for you to build a ship to go home!)

That is DECISION.

Do you understand? When you choose A that is called choosing when you chose A and declare that B is not a viable option then you have ended up with a decision.

Now if you think about waking up early in the morning - the planner choses to getup at 5am and at that time if he decides he needs to let himself know that not waking up is not an option. It is a decision and not a choice. When this is explained clearly the Executer when he wakes up knows that he knows he doesnt have a choice but a decision. So he will not hit the snooze button and wake up.

Now you know - what is deciding.!

Declare that the other choice or choices have been abandoned. This helps provide clarity and determination and the Person inbetween planner and executer is the one that is the real 'YOU'. It is 'You' who decides and 'You' who needs to clarify both the planner and executor the course of action.

Now tonight when you set your alarm you know what to do? When your hand goes closer to snooze button at 5 am then you know that this is not a choice but a decision and abandon this act of snooze and wake up.

DECISION is not to select but to Cut  - cut off the other option (s) is what Swami Sarvapriyananda says comes from Upanishads.

Now that you woke up early in the morning think about what Swamy Vivekananda said


Arise, Awake and Stop not till your goal is reached

What is your GOAL?

Let's talk about that in the next post

Keep waking up early
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #103 -WIIFM(What is in it for me?) - Why Government is important? - Boiling Frog and Elephant in the room

Let's start first off with saying No one likes the government!.

That might a good starting point for most of us. What do you think about government?

The role of government is not well understood by most of us. I thought I will revisit this since my son had a project in second grade to learn about government.

Understanding Communist government, Islamic governments with Sharia Law and Monarchy with Kings ruling subjects are out of scope for this discussion (want to be politically correct! - why mess with something that are best left alone)

Let's look at the frog in the pot

The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.(Wikipedia)


Our governments are the boiling water and we are so deep in it . The fact is you cannot jump and run to Mars(no scheduled flights yet!). So let's face it and learn what the government can do !

Democracy! - Let's start with that and stay with that for some time.

I asked my son "Who drank tea in Boston tea party?" and Arnav promptly replied "The Fish"!

American democracy and French democracy may be best examples for democracy but what still echoes in my ears in a set a lectures in iTunesU (iTunes University) from UC Berkley where the professor said "I wonder how India with all its divisions still functions as a democracy and is not in a civil war state for 70+ years).

In a traditional democracy we have Legislative, Executive and Judiciary.

The Law maker, the Law enforcer and the Law classifier!

My 7 year old didn't miss a beat when I asked what does the government do? My 74 year old Dad would also said the same reply - "Collect taxes!" . Is that the role of government?

I am reading this book now - "Naked Economics" and the author argues why Countries rich with resources like Angola and Nigeria are non functional because they don't have a functioning government.

Nigeria and Angola are countries with lots of resources and corruption and existence of no government oversight(or no government) makes these countries poor compared to all countries without any great resources like Egypt and Morocco.

Compare this same idea to what is happening in middle east. Israel which has no natural resource is a wealthy state and competes with all the oil rich states.

What can the government do? Create magic! Create the platform to encourage people and resource to work together to benefit its people.

BYOI - Bring Your Own Infrastructure - In most countries where companies are ready to invest are asked to bring their own Infrastructure including Nigeria.

Read the ted talk transcript here from Mariana Mazzucato

Have you ever asked yourselves why it is that companies, the really cool companies, the innovative ones, the creative, new economy-type companies -- Apple, Google, Facebook -- are coming out of one particular country, the United States of America? 

In other words - why is America more innovative than Europe in this new century (21st or 22nd depending on your mindset!)

The short answer - US Government invests in platforms.  DARPA invested in Internet. NIH- National Institute of Health invested $2.7 billion in FY 1991 dollars in Human Genome Sequencing Project. No wonder US will lead all innovations in not just sequencing the genome but build on top of that. DARPA is challenging all to create drive less car which Google and Standford are competing hard.

All these are ways by which US government is investing in what is important to its people and to the world. Create internet give us away for free to the world. The companies which worked on these are all US and no wonder US companies will benefit mostly Silicon Valley.  Same is true for Genome sequencing!

Government is the Elephant in the room . We can ignore them but it doesn't hide or vanish!

Belgium has no formal government for 535 days .Read about it  here.

So ,don't think it is only the African governments. 535 days is more than after Iraq with no government than Saddam .

Without understanding the word - externality we cannot understand why we need a government !

In economics, an externality is the cost or benefit that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit.[1]
For example, manufacturing activities that cause air pollution impose health and clean-up costs on the whole society, whereas the neighbors of an individual who chooses to fire-proof his home may benefit from a reduced risk of a fire spreading to their own houses 

(from Wikipedia)

If your neighbor installs  an antimissle system you benefit too! So, you don't want to invest and you neighbor doesn't and you get killed!



Enter the Savior the government.

If you make music or software and some one takes it and gives it free to everyone who can help you - Enter the Savior the government.

If you have a fight with your uncle who can settle that? Enter the Savior the government.

If your cat gets killed who will punish the 'bad' guy and how will you know they are bad - Enter the Savior the government.



Think about this cycle. British East India Company entered India through Chennai and Kolkatta.
and finally gave this territory to the Queen.

Companies can conquer territory for a government and government can help its people to be better! (How did he British people benefit - go back to wikipedia and Google please)

On the other hand governments can help foster and create new companies the Dutch/Netherlands has setup the environment for  Philips .Switzerland helps cheese factories, Nestle company and secret and transparent banking,Nokia was started in Finland.

On the contrary I heard the CEO (through the press) of Glaxo in World Economics Forum in "China is growing because of its government and India is growing despite every effort by its government"

What does your government do?


Keep getting government (and govern)
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #102 - What happened when George Dantzig was late to his classroom and found 2 equations on the blackboard?

I bet you will learn atleast 1 new information in this post  - if you didn't either you are a mind genius reading my mind or you are busy!


While reading a book about Mindset I came across George Dantzig's name.

The story goes something like this

In 1939 George Dantzig went to school late one day and when he entered the statistics class.

[Jerzy] Neyman's classes were in UC Berkeley and he was late (for Indians and Asian read this as George went to class and westerns can add late to the sentence to understand not being on time! - all pun intended on Asians).

On the blackboard he saw 2 equations and assumed they were his homework. He worked on it couple of days and finally submitted them to his professor.

According to Dantzig, the problems "seemed to be a little harder than usual", but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for the two problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue.

Least did he know these were two unsolved equations in statistics.

Wow!

Most of us don't do our home work.

What would have happened if he knew that these were unsolved (which sometimes can be interpreted as unsolvable!)

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp#tQZSPOZSV4kszilz.99


“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,”

 Albert Einstein .

May be Einstein can solve it in 1 minute but it may take us more than that.!

You get the idea.

Collect as much information as possible and understand what you are solving before solving.



Sometimes Ignorance is bliss. In this case ignorance about complexity of the problem is a bliss. You still need the intelligence to act but can be ignorant on other aspects(not being ignorant on how to act!)

Before solving anything you need to believe you can solve it. This applies to everything from issues at Home/work all the way to changing the world. Be self-aware

You need passion without which most things will be boring. Passion is sometimes combined with curiosity and looking at things as though they are 'new'!

When  I see my 3 year old looking at ants for a long time I know that this is passion to be curious!Learn from kids (not my kid - go find your own!)

It is interesting that children ask questions and a lot of them.
But  guess what  - most of the answers don't lead to the children to change the world except theirs.

 The Kids questions are interesting and the answers from adults are good(we got Wikipedia and Google). But the kids don't know what to do with the idea that came out of the questions - Wonder why all those innocent intelligent questions amount to anything - reason - They don't act on the idea.(of course they can't they are kids!)

Question the questions you ask !

Question the questions but make sure to use the answer!

What you don't know is more important than what you do and mostly that is what matters most.

Do you know what you don't know! Do you know what you know!

Mostly acting on the idea and action in general is more important than ideas.

It is said most people can make better Burgers than McDonald's but McDonald's can serve a million burgers a day and the best burger making people who do best burgers cannot scale and serve millions of hungry people with the best burgers.  Better to be mediocore and scale than to be best and serve your 4 family members. ACT.

and finally Relax .. it's just life!


Keep being ignorant about complexity
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #101 - Why is McDonald's in real estate business?

“If I had a brick for every time I’ve repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I’d probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them.” 

—Ray Kroc (the man behind McDonald's)

I bet you will learn at least 1 new information in this post  - if you didn't either you are a mind genius reading my mind or you are busy/didn't care/want to read today(do come back later!)!

(Please write in comment if you did learn something new or didn't!)

Let's start with the story of McDonalds - Let's say you are in Austin,USA and you go to Toronto,Canada and then you to go Chennai ,India.

What will you eat?

A survey by Sponsorship Research International found that 88 percent could identify the arches (the symbol for McDonald's) and only 54 percent could name the Christian cross, according to Fast Food Nation.

Read more:at here

In Canada you will try Canadian food - can anyone tell me what is Canadian food? I don't know.
Pizza is Italian. Sandwiches are European. Hamburgers and Hotdogs are american. Falafels are greek, Idli is South Indian,Noodles is - let's assume Chinese.

Notice  Marco Polo the Italian traveled from Venice,Italy to China and got noodles. Made it 'Italianized' and they named it Sphagettigi.

What has this got to do with McDonald's? Keep reading...

Italians and Food

When we visited Naples Italy we were explained the story of pizza.
When Italy was unified (no scholars can agree on a time but a timeframe which started in 1815 and end date is 1871 or 1918 depending on the literature or Wikipedia site you visit ) the Queen visited Naples.

Naples had fought war with Spain and the peasants have been eating this stuff for along time. Poor man's food is Pizza! Raffaele Esposito was a chef who was tasked with created Pizza for the Queen Margharita who visited this part of Italy after the unification in 1889. The pizza had the 3 colors Red -Tomato, White - Cheese  and Green - Basil and this was henceforth called Pizza Margarita. When we traveled North to South of Italy for 14 days I ate only this for 25 meals out of 28 meals (lunch or dinner). Only on 3 occasions I ordered and ate Pasta. I am authorized to say this stuff saved my life!

What has this got to do with McDonald's and KFC? - Keep reading.


1857 India's first war of  Independence and food

Gelatin - the food that is most feared by all Hindus,Vegetarians and Muslims. Gelatin has bones from Pig and cow . Pig is considered a low level animal not be consumed by Muslims and Cows are considered too holy to be eaten by Hindus(Holy Cow!).

What happens when Indians are informed that they have to bit,chew and discard something made up of Gelatin? What happens if they also happen to be employed by British to fight in British Indian Army? They revolt!

Thus was born in 1857 Under Mangal Pandey's leadership Sipoy Mutiny which included both Hindus and Muslims fighting side by side as the cartridge they had to bite and discard had Gelatin(This information about Gelatin was provided to Mangal Pandey by a friendly British officer!)

Indians started their first war of independence over food!

McDonald's was serving french fries with Beef extracts ! A lawsuit by vegetarians settled the matter and all of us who have eaten this beef fried fries never got any funds except .In 2002 McDonald's paid $10million to the lawyer and efforts to promote vegetarian movement in US.. Link here 

Connect all dots 

Steve Jobs  said in his Stanford graduation speech it is easy to connect the dots once things happen.  (Don't forget to watch his speech - Stay Foolish Stay hungry! Link here)
Hindsight is always 20-20.


It is said that there were many people who started a burger chain selling hamburgers in orange county California. Ray Croc was a milkshake sales man. He was intrigued by the fact that McDonalds a small mom and pop drive through and drive in restaurant in Orange County California was buying 2 milkshake machines as opposed to one which most stores were buying.

He joined the McDonald's - Richard and Maurice McDonald; brothers and convinced the McDonald's brothers to franchise. Like all stories he fired them/let them go by offering $2.7 million in 1961. It is funny to know that Richard McDonald was served the 50billionth burger in Hyatt in a ceremonial way but don't forget they never become as rich as Ray Croc .When he died in 1981 he was worth 500 million$.

“Dear Walt, I feel somewhat presumptuous addressing you in this way yet I feel sure you would not want me to address you any other way. My name is Ray A. Kroc….I look over the Company A picture we had taken at Sound Beach, Conn., many times and recall a lot of pleasant memories…I have very recently taken over the national franchise of the McDonald’s system. I would like to inquire if there may be an opportunity for a McDonald’s in your Disneyland Development.”

He wrote the above letter to Walt Dinsey and never got a reply back - according to some other sources he got a simple no.

In any case they both had something in common - can you guess?

1,2,3... ok. Here is the answer - Children.

Walt Disney's mouse could make the grandparents,parents and kids spin! McDonald's burgers can do the same!

At one point Ray Croc though about building an amusement park and eventually decided on Play Areas in every McDonalds.

Every child will bring 2 customers to the store was what he always used to say ( I didn't listen to him say that - I read about it!)

McDonald used to own Donatos Pizza, Boston Market and Chipotle Mexican Grill. They sold off Chipotle and is now an independent chain again.

Who can make better burger than McDonald's has been asked several times and the answer had been many many millions of people. In reality no one can scale like them! We can make 100 great burgers but McDonald's sells millions of average burgers!

They own and operate a big university called Hamburger university to train their employees they own multi million dollar research facility to come up with new food items and cooking methods.Remember McDonald's menu like any other fast food changes from time to time except their core products like Big Mac!


McDonald's also works with lots of chemicals to add artificial and natural flavors to your food. While we may never know the difference between what is considered natural and what is artificial do recall since white coat lab scientist make this food they can make any test tube smell like fries and that is how the stuff that you eat smells like when you eat - while the frozen fried potato has no flavor the chemical does.

Real estate - Ray Croc had asked in either Standford or Harvard what business is McDonald's in? The answer is real estate.

When Ray Croc was struggling to grow his business which the McDonald's brothers were not part of anymore he hired  Sonneborn. Sonneborn came up with the idea of Franchise Realty Corporation, which is McDonald's Real Estate subsidiary . The real money making machine for McDonald's corporation.Ray Croc fired Sonneborn too! Don't forget Ray Croc benefited not the people who built it.

McDonald's franchises flip burgers but McDonald's corporation flips real estate



Let me site 2 different examples - Ikea which used to be a furniture store figured that everytime they enter a new market the real estate value started going up. So they decided like McDonald's to enter this market and own realestate adjacent to where they will develop a new store and then sell/lease it.

Look at their graph above from and you will get the idea.

Kmart which also used to be identified as a store that was making a loss in US was actually in real estate business and when they restructured they sold a part of their real estate holding and bought Sears!

Real estate is where the money is!

Next time when you see a McDonald's don't forget the own the real estate and not burgers(the Franchises do this job!)!

War

Even though the following 2 statements looks good -

'No two countries that have a McDonalds have ever gone to war',
'The US has never gone to war against a country with a McDonalds'

It is not true!

Keep eating
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran

Blog Post #100 - SELFIE - What did I write in 100 blog posts?

千里之行，始於足下

I assume you don't know Chinese. Is that a good assumption? We all make assumptions and I make lots of them.

The Chinese saying above translates to - " A thousand miles begins with a single step".

If you are not used to some one just bragging out himself or herself you can skip this post as this post is all about me,my interests, why I write these posts, who reads my posts  - in all it is egocentric big ME.

I thought why not celebrate my accomplishment by patting myself on my back (really!).

Sep 19 2013 About a year ago I started this little project of mine . I wanted to write.

Even a tide starts as a ripple.  

So I wanted to create waves aiming all the way to my own interview with Oprah! 

Why is Oprah a benchmark for my writing - I don't know it is just that I admire her show and respect all people who appear in her show.

So the big question was - What will I write about and who will read my blogs?

I read a lot of books, I have books on cds in my car, I have playaways(small players from library)  - notice the 'I's in this line - it is always about me.

I thought I will write a synopsis of the books I read, my thoughts, my view of the world (I have a lot of them) and my interactions with my kids and children. 

Like Dr. Abdul Kalam I always like to discuss major ideas with children as they think everything is possible . Adults are experts and they always tell you why your ideas won't work!

Books are my Window to the world and I thought I will open those windows and let you see something I see.


I also wanted Leave behind something that might be used later by generations to come.

I wanted to be like Thomas Jefferson -  a man of words in the literal sense (as mentioned by Stephen Ambrose in 'To America' ) - when Jefferson said All Men are created equal he continued to own slaves expecting future generations to come along and implement this idea. 

Contrast this with George Washington who freed all his slaves and acted on ideals while not creating elaborate documents!

Man of action. No wonder he gets a capital and state named after him along with currency and memorials.

I prefer to be  - a man who write a lots and expects you the reader to implement ideas to change the world while I continue to generate more ideas - as ideas as cheap and acting on them is difficult. 

So let me do the easy part.

My other intention has been to spark the interest in Learning.

Learning to help people to be part of a cause bigger than us, learning to understand that we are mere mortals with big potentials, learning to share ideas.

Learning to be a tourist!




A traveler seeks and a tourist visits. 

So please just don't visit my blog but seek the truth and experience it. Some of you have liked , some commented ,some constructively criticized ( I really don't understand what this means as any criticism according to me is not constructive!) and mostly encouraged me .

 So You will have the next 100 posts in 1 year!

I knew I was good in talking (or so I thought) - remember I can talk for hours if I get anyone who would care to listen to me - from a baby to a granny. ( I don't talk well with animals!). 

Earlier in my career I was taught by a VP in EDS that while I talk I am not communicating. Lesson learnt.

In an effort to communicate - I started talking louder,in an animated way. asking for feedback, working on stopping my Indian bobble head or Indian head shake, pausing - you name it I am still working on it.

I attended training where they record your speech and fellow participants provude constructive criticism (yes the same old stuff!!) ,attended toast masters, got Dale Carnegie trained to win friends and influence people, saw hours of videos of Tony Robbins to Ted Talks - all this to help me communicate in person and be good at it.

Now, I am still where I started . 

To be honest - all these training courses are great at training but not good at fundamentally changing people.  

Finally I understood this truth.

Once I decided to write there is nothing which stopped me - 

my spelling mistakes I didn't care about them ( I always got my excuse that English is not from family tongue). 

My family speaks Tamil and they are good at it. My sisters,my mom and my dad are good in Hindi and Sanskrit. I am good in Hindi not Sanskrit even though I love to write about Sanskrit.
(check listing below for articles on same)

Most books I read are in English which is not my native tongue . So my mind converts the information to Tamil and I retrieve this content and type in English . I can feel this process everytime and sometimes I am at loss of words.. what is that word in English which means this in Tamil..and I still enjoy this process.

I thought about youtube and audio files - wait a minute - I immigrated to US 15 years ago and from that day till today I am corrected on how to pronounce certain words. Nice people would work with me to rephrase , rude people will say it on my face . Once a colleague said - "Can you say that in English" while I was explaining something in my Victorian accent.

I thought I had Victorian accent and coming from India I thought the American speak American English and we - the rest of the world Victorian. 

Little did I realize after my travel to England and after listening to hours of NPR interviews, BBC analysis and PRI reporting the colonies were left with Victorian accent and the British went back to England and changed their accent to 'British'. 

Even when the colonies followed them to London , gave them chicken tikka Masala, served samasoas near Lloyd stadium they didn't tell us this truth.

Next time observe an India or  Pakistani talk to South African and you will understand that these folks can communicate well with their accent while they have a hard time talking to Queen's land folks - the British who ruled and gave them this Victorian English.

What is blogging anyways - after 100 posts I can confidently say I don't know .

I am still trying to figure it out like a good traveler travelling through life.

While sometimes I wanted to brag about my knowledge sometimes I wanted to genuinely share from good information. 

I thought my niece and nephew would like these (pity them!) and my kids will read them (pity me) and my grandkids may treasure them (high hopes!)

My friend's dad mentioned (I want to believe he is right) that Siva (the big ME). knows about everything. 

I think I do. (Modesty is a virtue like patience)

That is because I keep reading a lot and know that I need to learn more. 

Every topic and every field I touch takes me into a deeper space where I am starting as a student. 

I guess this is the secret fountain to eternal youth - to be a student than a teacher!

My little one now started talking and while teaching days of the week and asking him a question "What comes after Sunday?"

 His answer was a promptly was tomorrow!

 I am enjoying my journey and want to share these tiny moments which matter to me a lot and wanted a way to enjoy the same with you.

Here is some web traffic data for my site - I always wonder who read my site besides me!

Pageviews all time history - 3763 as of today (about 20-80 clicks per blog).

While traffic is picking up it is interesting to find people use mobile a lot

FireFox tops the list of people who read my blog? Wow .

Finally Google is picking up my site with search keywords . These days google is integrated with google+ and blogger content and no wonder I get more clicks.


My most famous blog for now has 244 views - so I assume people want to memorize books(poor students.. students are poor in knowledge till they give up!)

Blog Post #39 - How to memorize a whole book - Teach yourself and your kid (or the kid inside you!)! Memory Palace and Mind Maps

My Ego	Blog Post #100 - SELFIE - WOW .Can't believe I wrote 100 blog post. Thanks for your support.
Story Telling	Blog Post #99 - Do you know how to tell a story well?
Promising	Blog Post #98 - Promises - the promises we keep and the promises we break decides who we are !
Math	Blog Post #97 - Aliens - 0/0,QED and Golbach conjecture - Cool Math  without equations/calculations
Happiness	Blog Post #96 - D= S-M An equation which reveals the secret to happiness and meaning of life answering the question - What is the  purpose of my/your life?
Chess	Blog Post #95 - How do you win a  Scholastic kids chess tournament?
Growth	Blog Post #94 - Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset #BeingHuman
History	Blog Post #93 - Letter writers - Famous letters from history !
Mystery	Blog Post #92 - Mystery and Puzzles What's the difference?
Language	Blog Post #91 - What do you know about past tense?  - Not your grammar class!
Life skill	Blog Post #90 - Why are we seeing more chevy cars on the roads now?
Technology	Blog Post #89 - “I know two great men,one is you and the other is this young man.” - Do you know these 2 men?
Manage emails	Blog Post #88 - How many emails are in your inbox?
Chess	Blog Post #87 - Chess and 7 Life Lessons - what can we learn from Siva teaching/learning chess?
Physics	Blog Post #86 - SpaceTime conundrum and Mont Pelerin society for layman,laywoman and laychild #STEM #Economics
Spiritual	Blog Post #85 - Veda - Yoga, Ayurveda  and 6 Questions!!!
Chemistry	Blog Post #84 - Salt and Sweet - the chemicals of life!
Physics	Blog Post #83 - Newton believed in God, Einstein was the god!!! How Wonder land of Physics is intertwined with Chemistry!! #STEM
Gratitude	Blog Post #82 - To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked. #gratitude
Technology – Glass	Blog Post #81 - Glass - you wear them,see them use them  - they are your future(past and present)!!!
Math	Blog Post #80 - Zero - our hero and what does Sthanam sthanam dasha gunam have to do with your bank account?
Life Skill	Blog Post #79 - Be yourself everyone else is taken!
Life Skill	Blog Post #78 - Bright Spot Analysis - Solution Based Problem Solving
Chemistry	Blog Post #77 - Mystery behind Chemistry and Wonder of periodic table  -  you are made of carbon.
Life Skill	Blog Post #76 - White Bear,Stale Popcorn,Choclate &Radish, Basket Ball game -  4 experiments that are commonly referred in books
Math	Blog Post #75 - Do you know Prime Numbers - God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the  prime numbers #primenumbers
Book review	Blog Post #74 - 10-10-10 What was that book all about?
Science – Doctors	Blog Post #73 - Primum non nocere  - Idiopathic - Bacteria ,Virus  and Doctors!!!!
Geography	Blog Post #72 - New countries, new states   -  Geography for Mummies,Daddies and Dummies! #Geography
Math	Blog Post #71 - Triangles and Circle of Life – Math fascination
Life Skill- motivation	Blog Post #70 - What motivates you - money or MAPPS (an acronym not a spelling mistake)
Spiritual	Blog Post #69 - The Ancient Hindus,Buddhist and Jains were thinking about nothing!
Math	Blog Post #68 -  1=2 How did that happen?
Life Skill - self	Blog Post #67 -Remembering self and Experiencing Self Cognitive traps and Happiness - Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman
Chemistry	Blog Post #66 -Energy sources - what powers you
Life Skill - Money	Blog Post #65 - Money - Wealth and Rich
Life Skill – Winning	Blog Post #64 - Winning ,Losing - Lying and Cheating
Technology	Blog Post #63 - Passwords - cyber security accounts locked, Open and compromised
Spiritual	Blog Post #62 - Adi Shankara and What is the use?
Economics	Blog Post #61 - Game theory in everyday life - what games are you playing today?
Technology	Blog Post #60 - Your Internet and My Internet - How is it different?
Life Skill – work	Blog Post #59 - Where do you work? What do you do for a living?
Life Skill – decision	Blog Post #58 - Decision Making - If you have to decide  .. STOP.. and use this method. (from the book Decisive)
Life Skill – resolution	Blog Post #57 - Why your new year's resolution will not work . For smarter people - why you don't have a new year's resolution?
Math	Blog Post #56 - Magic of Number 11   - Number tricks and facts
Spiritual	Blog Post #55 -  A student went to a teacher and said I cannot learn more and the teacher went to grab a big kettle full of tea..
History	Blog Post #54 -  Genghis Khan Chanakya Alexander (Why should I call him great?) and Sadhu(Learned Man)
Technology	Blog Post #53 - What Cost 2.7billion dollars  in 1991 $$ is costing $500 + ipad and in future drop to around $50?
Math and Spiritual	Blog Post #52 - When was Jesus Born - Jan 1 0 AD/BC ? How to know what day of the week is Christmas?
Math	Blog Post #51 -  What day is Jan 2014? How to teach your kid (or the kid in you) how to find day for a Jan 1 of any year ? - Math  and Life Series
Language	Blog Post #50 -  Why Should I press 2 for Spanish ?
Technology	Blog Post #49-  When will I be able to drop my kids to school using Drones? - sooner than you think...
People	Blog Post #48-   Who was Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu? Why did she get a noble prize as an Indian Citizen?
People	Blog Post #47 -   Einstein's letter changed the world - Really?
Life Skill- Home	Blog Post #46 -  Where is home? Where are you Originally from? - Geography and its importance
Gratitude	Blog Post #45 -  What are you thankful for (usual question),What is personal accountability and how can it help you? What did you  this year some one else is thankful for ?
History ,Geography and Langauge	Blog Post #44 -  What is Rosetta Stone? Why Should you care?
Memory	Blog Post #43 -  Spend 15minutes to learn how to remember 10 things and recall in exact order - Memory peg technique
Education	Blog Post #42 -  Back to School with Buddha - Nalanda Univesity is back - Harvard, Stanfort,MIT,Cambridge and Oxford combined! (Thanks to India,Japan,Singapore and China)
Life Skill – Priorities	Blog Post #41 -  Maslow was wrong,Meeting rituals are weird ,80/20 Pareto is a heuristic and TGIF is not a good attitude
Life Skill – Leadership	Blog Post #40 -  What does it take to be a leader? - are you one?
Memory	Blog Post #39 -  How to memorize a whole book - Teach yourself and your kid (or the kid inside you!)! Memory Palace and Mind Maps
Religion	Blog Post #38 -  Karbala,Kabba and Arc of Covenant - ( Religion series )
Valuing People	Blog Post #37 -  “A person is a person, no matter how small.” - Is it really true?
Science	Blog Post #36 - Vegetables and fruits - What you know, What you don't know ,what you know that you know and what you know you don't  know.
Technology	Blog Post #35 - Google and travel!! - On Road  and On Space
Technology	Blog Post #34 - Sunni Web, Halal Internet and Great Firewall of China
Human Body	Blog Post #33 - Human body,Anaesthesia , Vestigal organs
Time	Blog Post #32 - Time again to read about time
Signs	Blog Post #31- # - Sign or Symbol or tag?
People	Blog Post #30 - Who was Einstein's brother? Did Newton have a sister? What was Shakespeare's dad name?
People	Blog Post #29 - Robina courtin and Julian Assange - What does Wikileaks and a monk have in common?
Geography	Blog Post #28 - Longitude
Chess and Music	Blog Post #27 - Can you read? I mean Algebric Notation and Music Sheet
Accounting	Blog Post #26 - Luca Pacioli -  Double Entry Accounting (Dont yawn..this is interesting)
Banking	Blog Post #25 - 3-5 Business days to transfer money from one to another. Why?
Technology	Blog Post #24 - Amazon Mechanical Turk, Electronic Pill , Google Driverless car and Thought controlled bionics- Eric Schmidt the new  digital age
Public speaking	Blog Post #23 - How to buy time when some one asks you a question?
Technology	Blog Post #22 - Printing Press and now 3D Printer - Did this change your life?
Math	Blog Post #21 - 24 * 60 = ? Answer is not 1440
Agenda	Blog Post #20 - 50 Topics for 50 weeks... let us learn 1 a week
Paradox	Blog Post #19 - Amazon is a river, Google is a large number (with a spelling mistake..i guess they didn't have did you mean Googol)  and HP/Dell are someone's names!
Time	Blog Post #18 - Time
Self-awareness	Blog Post #17 -  Tat Twan Asi = Know Thyself. Self awareness what does it mean?
Speech	Blog Post #16 -  Intelligent people talk about Ideas,....
My experience	Blog Post #15 -   Bucket pitch - My volunteer activity and my experiments
World war	Blog Post #14 -  World war 1 - war of chemist , World War 2 - Physicist and Math war.
Math and Philosophy	Blog Post #13 -  Sir x =  (a + b^n)/n  hence God exists, reply!!!
Self-awareness	Blog Post #12- 3 -- Inside, Inbetween and Outside
Math	Blog Post #11- Isomorphic - 49 heads in a coin toss means what?
Self- awareness	Blog Post #10- 5 Elements
	Blog Post #9-  Pythagoras brotherhood, Numbers and language
My experience	Blog Post #8 - Kitchen faucets and Sheena Iyengar
Book review	Blog Post #7 - Three cups of tea and Born to Run
Makes me cry!	Blog Post #6 The last lecture..Alice and Scratch
Math and TED	Blog Post #5 - Reading Books - Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week , TED Talks and Fermat's last theorem
My experience	Blog Post #4 - My Bahamas Travel - What i learned !
Priorities	Blog Post #3 - Time Management and managing priorities
Questions – learning	Blog Post #2 - I have a lots of questions - Math - Randomness - Sample space, Pascal wager, Monty hall problem - isomorphism
Chemistry	Blog Post #1 - Chemistry - Elements and Periodic table - Questions to ask yourself!

Wow.. is there a method to this madness!. Here is a simplified version

Accounting

Blog Post #26 - Luca Pacioli -  Double Entry Accounting (Dont yawn..this is interesting)

Agenda

Blog Post #20 - 50 Topics for 50 weeks... let us learn 1 a week

Banking

Blog Post #25 - 3-5 Business days to transfer money from one to another. Why?

Book review	Blog Post #74 - 10-10-10 What was that book all about?
Book review	Blog Post #7 - Three cups of tea and Born to Run

Chemistry	Blog Post #84 - Salt and Sweet - the chemicals of life!
Chemistry	Blog Post #77 - Mystery behind Chemistry and Wonder of periodic table  -  you are made of carbon.
Chemistry	Blog Post #66 -Energy sources - what powers you
Chemistry	Blog Post #1 - Chemistry - Elements and Periodic table - Questions to ask yourself!

Chess	Blog Post #95 - How do you win a  Scholastic kids chess tournament?
Chess	Blog Post #87 - Chess and 7 Life Lessons - what can we learn from Siva teaching/learning chess?
Chess and Music	Blog Post #27 - Can you read? I mean Algebric Notation and Music Sheet

Economics

Blog Post #61 - Game theory in everyday life - what games are you playing today?

Education

Blog Post #42 -  Back to School with Buddha - Nalanda Univesity is back - Harvard, Stanfort,MIT,Cambridge and Oxford combined!

Geography	Blog Post #72 - New countries, new states   -  Geography for Mummies,Daddies and Dummies! #Geography
Geography	Blog Post #28 - Longitude

Gratitude	Blog Post #82 - To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked.
Gratitude	Blog Post #45 -  What are you thankful for (usual question),What is personal accountability and how can it help you?  What did you this year some one else is thankful for ?

Growth

Blog Post #94 - Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset #BeingHuman

Happiness

Blog Post #96 - D= S-M An equation which reveals the secret to happiness and meaning of life answering the question - What is the purpose of my/your life?

History	Blog Post #93 - Letter writers - Famous letters from history !
History	Blog Post #54 -  Genghis Khan Chanakya Alexander (Why should I call him great?) and Sadhu(Learned Man)

History ,Geography and Langauge

Blog Post #44 -  What is Rosetta Stone? Why Should you care?

Human Body

Blog Post #33 - Human body,Anaesthesia , Vestigal organs

Language	Blog Post #91 - What do you know about past tense?  - Not your grammar class!
Language	Blog Post #50 -  Why Should I press 2 for Spanish ?

Life skill	Blog Post #90 - Why are we seeing more chevy cars on the roads now?
Life Skill	Blog Post #79 - Be yourself everyone else is taken!
Life Skill	Blog Post #78 - Bright Spot Analysis - Solution Based Problem Solving
Life Skill	Blog Post #76 - White Bear,Stale Popcorn,Choclate &Radish, Basket Ball game -  4 experiments that are commonly referred in books
Life Skill- motivation	Blog Post #70 - What motivates you - money or MAPPS (an acronym not a spelling mistake)
Life Skill - self	Blog Post #67 -Remembering self and Experiencing Self Cognitive traps and Happiness - Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman
Life Skill - Money	Blog Post #65 - Money - Wealth and Rich
Life Skill – Winning	Blog Post #64 - Winning ,Losing - Lying and Cheating
Life Skill – work	Blog Post #59 - Where do you work? What do you do for a living?
Life Skill – decision	Blog Post #58 - Decision Making - If you have to decide  .. STOP.. and use this method. (from the book Decisive)
Life Skill – resolution	Blog Post #57 - Why your new year's resolution will not work . For smarter people - why you don't have a new year's resolution?
Life Skill- Home	Blog Post #46 -  Where is home? Where are you Originally from? - Geography and its importance
Life Skill – Priorities	Blog Post #41 -  Maslow was wrong,Meeting rituals are weird ,80/20 Pareto is a heuristic and TGIF is not a good attitude
Life Skill – Leadership	Blog Post #40 -  What does it take to be a leader? - are you one?

Makes me cry!

Blog Post #6 The last lecture..Alice and Scratch

Manage emails

Blog Post #88 - How many emails are in your inbox?

Math	Blog Post #97 - Aliens - 0/0,QED and Golbach conjecture - Cool Math  without equations/calculations
Math	Blog Post #80 - Zero - our hero and what does Sthanam sthanam dasha gunam have to do with your bank account?
Math	Blog Post #75 - Do you know Prime Numbers - God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers
Math	Blog Post #71 - Triangles and Circle of Life – Math fascination
Math	Blog Post #68 -  1=2 How did that happen?
Math	Blog Post #56 - Magic of Number 11   - Number tricks and facts
Math and Spiritual	Blog Post #52 - When was Jesus Born - Jan 1 0 AD/BC ? How to know what day of the week is Christmas?
Math	Blog Post #51 -  What day is Jan 2014? How to teach your kid (or the kid in you) how to find day for a Jan 1 of any year ? - Math
Math	Blog Post #21 - 24 * 60 = ? Answer is not 1440
Math and Philosophy	Blog Post #13 -  Sir x =  (a + b^n)/n  hence God exists, reply!!!
Math	Blog Post #11- Isomorphic - 49 heads in a coin toss means what?
Math and Ted	Blog Post #5 - Reading Books - Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week , TED Talks and Fermat's last theorem

Memory	Blog Post #43 -  Spend 15minutes to learn how to remember 10 things and recall in exact order - Memory peg technique
Memory	Blog Post #39 -  How to memorize a whole book - Teach yourself and your kid (or the kid inside you!)! Memory Palace and Mind Maps

My Ego

This post - Blog Post #100 - SELFIE - WOW .Can't believe I wrote 100 blog post. Thanks for your support.

My experience	Blog Post #15 -   Bucket pitch - My volunteer activity and my experiments
My experience	Blog Post #8 - Kitchen faucets and Sheena Iyengar
My experience	Blog Post #4 - My Bahamas Travel - What I learned !

Mystery

Blog Post #92 - Mystery and Puzzles What's the difference?

Paradox

Blog Post #19 - Amazon is a river, Google is a large number (with a spelling mistake..i guess they didn't have did you mean Googol)

People	Blog Post #48-   Who was Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu? Why did she get a noble prize as an Indian Citizen?
People	Blog Post #47 -   Einstein's letter changed the world - Really?
People	Blog Post #30 - Who was Einstein's brother? Did Newton have a sister? What was Shakespeare's dad name?
People	Blog Post #29 - Robina courtin and Julian Assange - What does Wikileaks and a monk have in common?

Physics and Economics	Blog Post #86 - SpaceTime conundrum and Mont Pelerin society for layman,laywoman and laychild #STEM #Economics
Physics and Chemistry	Blog Post #83 - Newton believed in God, Einstein was the god!!! How Wonder land of Physics is intertwined with Chemistry!! #STEM

Priorities

Blog Post #3 - Time Management and managing priorities

Promising

Blog Post #98 - Promises - the promises we keep and the promises we break decides who we are !

Public speaking

Blog Post #23 - How to buy time when some one asks you a question?

Questions – learning

Blog Post #2 - I have a lots of questions - Math - Randomness - Sample space, Pascal wager, Monty hall problem - isomorphism

Religion

Blog Post #38 -  Karbala,Kabba and Arc of Covenant - ( Religion series )

Science

Blog Post #36 - Vegetables and fruits - What you know, What you don't know ,what you know that you know and what you know you don't

Doctors

Blog Post #73 - Primum non nocere  - Idiopathic - Bacteria ,Virus  and Doctors!!!!

Self-awareness	Blog Post #17 -  Tat Twan Asi = Know Thyself. Self awareness what does it mean?
Self-awareness	Blog Post #12- 3 -- Inside, Inbetween and Outside
Self- awareness	Blog Post #10- 5 Elements

Signs

Blog Post #31- # - Sign or Symbol or tag?

Speech

Blog Post #16 -  Intelligent people talk about Ideas,....

Spiritual	Blog Post #85 - Veda - Yoga, Ayurveda  and 6 Questions!!!
Spiritual	Blog Post #69 - The Ancient Hindus,Buddhist and Jains were thinking about nothing!
Spiritual	Blog Post #62 - Adi Shankara and What is the use?
Spiritual	Blog Post #55 -  A student went to a teacher and said I cannot learn more and the teacher went to grab a big kettle full of tea..

Story Telling

Blog Post #99 - Do you know how to tell a story well?

Technology	Blog Post #89 - “I know two great men,one is you and the other is this young man.” - Do you know these 2 men?
Technology	Blog Post #81 - Glass - you wear them,see them use them  - they are your future(past and present)!!!
Technology	Blog Post #63 - Passwords - cyber security accounts locked, Open and compromised
Technology	Blog Post #60 - Your Internet and My Internet - How is it different?
Technology	Blog Post #53 - What Cost 2.7billion dollars  in 1991 $$ is costing $500 + ipad and in future drop to around $50?
Technology	Blog Post #49-  When will I be able to drop my kids to school using Drones? - sooner than you think...
Technology	Blog Post #35 - Google and travel!! - On Road  and On Space
Technology	Blog Post #34 - Sunni Web, Halal Internet and Great Firewall of China
Technology	Blog Post #24 - Amazon Mechanical Turk, Electronic Pill , Google Driverless car and Thought controlled bionics- Eric Schmidt the new
Technology	Blog Post #22 - Printing Press and now 3D Printer - Did this change your life?

Time	Blog Post #32 - Time again to read about time
Time	Blog Post #18 - Time

Value People

Blog Post #37 -  “A person is a person, no matter how small.” - Is it really true?

World war

Blog Post #14 -  World war 1 - war of chemist , World War 2 - Physicist and Math war.

I hope my blogs are inspiring and changing the world. I believe the quote below summarizes my thought. 

Writing 100 blog doesn't make me a hero - I know but I hope it inspires people to write ,read and share. 

Keep learning,liking,commenting,criticizing and encouraging(in short living!)
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran