All that has changed_Is there a dearth of problem statements?

one often has to come up with innovation idea sparks that will benefit mankind in general. It may be a tool that assists in day to day chores or a simple revelation that can aid in better decision making. But, after the long hours of research that sits on a research question, hypotheses setting string of assumptions, I often get to ask myself before the others do - "Dont I already know this?". Sleeping at the right time and for a sufficient time will lead to better well-being and longer life. Keeping yourself hydrated every few hours is good for body immune system. Staring at the laptop for long hours strains the eyes and affects the physiological system cycle over time. We do know that, or could prove some systematic quantitative results. But what after that. Do we heed to research findings. Will we mend our ways, if we are thrown up with life improving facts? Is the smoker still going to smoke knowing its is decreasing his life expectancy in an exponential rate? One of the things I regularly practice while coming up with ideas, is asking: "What do I need in life? What are the things I feel would be a life-saver for me?" At least in my case, this trivia is a good starting point and helps greatly in narrowing down options for structuring the solutions approach. Going through the hierarchy of needs and requirements of an individual, I discovered that there are fundamentally a few things that really matter which branch out subsequently in different ways for different ways. What are these needs, have these changed over time? How well-off are we in these aspects compared to yesteryear humans. We can think about such things. Food, moderate and regular social exposure, shelter, travel may be a few things I can come up with right now. Moving back to the primary discussion point of what do we need, how to make things easier for current generation, what are we missing that the previous guys had in plenty? How can my discoveries be better than just suggestions? For this, we may need to go into exploring the differences between the older and newer generation. This is a commonplace grand-mom favoured topic which never seems to wean in discussion tables of almost all households. But a very rich source of problem statements may lie right here. What all do I(any person) know right now that I am doing has obvious scope for rectification may be some of the following neo-life characteristics: I sleep at odd times. I have fleeting and variant eating patterns. I stare at mobile-laptops for a longer time. I do not work out regularly. I eat junk food regularly. I do not take care of my skin, stomach, hair, limbs in obvious ways which I have been taught from childhood. I am attached to virtual entertainment media in such a way that my association with what is life, how should I behave, how should I life, how do I perceive others should behave are strongly influenced by the roles played by actors who try to mimic what I (the generic social individual) do. These may be some points which strongly differentiate the artificial complications we may have unknowingly superimposed into our lives while the older guys were in fact chilling and having a good time with no TVs, no inflation, more time for retrospection and doing the basic things of eat, sleep and talk. One may counter saying that there were other problems during those times which have been addressed with technology. Agreed, technology has made things easier certainly. My focus here is to search for problem statements and hence I screen out the comparing old versus new features which project what we are better off with, for brevity. How does one structure a problem statement that addresses problems that are directly or indirectly related to the current life style? What do we have, what do we need? What are the impacts of this lifestyle? These are points, which may lead one to fruitful research questions in some narrow aspect that may lead to one of the many roots of lifestyle impact paradigm. At least in health care, I do not have to say that almost all problems have been addressed by researchers and the field is mature. There is and will always be newer things to work on as people cease to stop once a while in their routine life to retrospect on the obvious things they ought to do but seem to have no time to do it to the busyness of their comfortable existence.

The love for research - Part A: Why a PhD

Fate is a strange thing. One wishes to do something and fate conspires in setting up situations enabling oneself to fulfill these wishes, metaphorizing a war till the last enemy soldier is killed. I like to read. I like to find out things. I like to contribute to literature. But most of all, I like to profess. Am I capable for the jobs and the path, I keep asking myself. That is fine, as in this long journey, even the best of the best seem to have treaded similar paths where they ask themself often: "Is it worth it, leaving: my mother country far away, a plush corporate job with cumulative savings, an early family life kick-off and many other things. But alas, it is sacrifice my friend. The burning coal and the tirelessly working bellows will yield the best of metal castings. The penance for the cause of science, will pay-off. And admit it, it is all for your love. For your love for research and science. Science can get addicting and the perennial effort to learn improves you intellectually much beyond your expectations. And, this is a continuous process. The optimistic learner is better than an intellectual fool with terrific scientific instincts but no discipline of research.

Missing the important things in life

Times go by, like the wind breeze touching across your cheeks and sending a chill in the rim of your outer ear in a fine summer evening. Well, you were 8 and you were small. You could run around the garden all evenings and meet friends and play cricket till your legs got tired. You became 15 and the 'reality' of life dawns upon you. You want to become significant in the world of things. In the world of entities, you want to be known, be called as the just, the enduring and occupy a special place. You enter the education age. The 16-25 when you constantly studying, promising yourself that you will grow up one day. You will grow up to own a car, grow up to buy your parents tickets to a world tour. Grow up and make yourself secure. Make yourself stable and worthy of getting married. You then come near the 30s. So fast... You were just 8 yesterday!!! What is this life for? You ask. Is it to get married, to have kids, to roam places every once a year when you can afford a vacation amidst the tooth-knitting work that never ends? There is so much motivation , so much of positivity to perform, so much of zeal to contribute to this world... But what has anyone ever done to the betterment of this universe. All the mankind, we think every minutes of our work, counts. Either for the betterment of a company, or for a sub-section of the society; or at least for the accumulation of personal property.But in the deepest of your heart, you know. You know that it is all a game. It is a game where you play fair, you act diligent and then you pass on the baton. So, what is the takeaway of all this gibberish reminiscience. Have I improved over time. Was the game well played. Well, that is an easy one to answer. Let me do it for you. Did you have fun all along, that is the question you need to ask. We, humans, have traversed the short period of earth time and very long period of mankind from burning the first stick to create fire to creating our own concrete hyper-jungles. As all big management gurus keep telling once a while, also be a spectator, not only a completely immersed hyper-active player in the various games that you are part of in the sequence of life. You are an employer of the company, contribute to eat; to earn your bread. Be motivated to give your best, but don;t burn yourself. The more you place yourself in the hotseat, the more you are burning yourself. And finally, in your yonder years, once a tiny smirk will come up your face when you realize the answer to the rhetoric -" Was it all worth it??" So now, coming back to the topic of the post, missing the important things in life... Many a times, we take decision. We do a lot of sacrifice. We push ourselves to the best of our capabilities. The questions, often keeps posing in our minds are: 'Is it worth it', 'Am I worth it', 'Can I do it', 'What it is meaning of whatever I do' and 'Is this the best thing for me'. Well, I have a steady state response for it, my friend. Remember it, and remember it well. For all those things you have forgone, for the troubles, for the stress, for the learning that keep piling up your brain like an over-stuffs library shelf; remember my friend, 'Make it count'. Make it count and use your stuff to your advantage. Learn, enjoy, contribute and never doubt yourself. You don't even know what you are capable of. Make wise decisions, get more smart and rise above everything. And alas, while having fun rising constantly through the intermittent turmoil, 'viola'; you have reached the plateau. You have achieved things you hadn't even imagined you could have achieved all your life. The important things you missed were not for vain after all. Hence, the endurance, hence the penance, hence the fun of life as it is given by God.

Man is a social animal?

In our textbooks, we have read the popular statement - Man is a social animal. I find that animals are more social than man. The human species seems to be the least social in the last few years of developments ;-) As we move further in life, we meet more people, we interact with many of the better intellects. It builds our perspective and humbles us further. This is an important part of maturity. Meeting people as we age is a must. Learning from the experiences is 'common sensical' intelligence.

The clout under the democracy's veil

I was greatly impressed by Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged though it took months for me to read. I digested the thought of human non-utility of desperate people at the top of the political hierarchy from it. The thought of useless people in power, talking about thing they can't do, afraid of the people who can do great things to the country. What I see now in the recent week's interview, just reinstates the same. The person may be innocent. He may be talking full of emotion, but he can't and won't change anything... His family's name is at stake. His party's name is at stake. As we all know and have been seeing for years about the thousand's of crores of money they have made and how they have ignored the state's affairs. The interviewer brought out several of the scandals done by the powerful. We all know what is happening in the system, we just want it to stop and the unjust be punished. With great power comes responsibility. Being powerful is not wrong, but being powerfully unjust is just not pardonable. My dearest Mother India; why have you taken so much of pain. Why have your children endured the torment of corruption to the core. Why is the country's economy boiling in the last two years in the like's of which it hasn't seen in the last 200 years. I love you mother, I want your children to prosper. I do not want your face, the face of rising India to be shown as the crying naked child having malnutrition and picking on roadside garbage. Time and again, we Indians have proven worthy of unique intelligence. We will stand by you, my dearest mother. I just pray that the rising inflation should stabilize. Corruption or no corruption, every Indian should get access to his daily morsel, not by alms but by rightly earning it in the possible way. Education should reach the nooks of the nation. Food, nutrition and sanitation should reach the poorest. Leaders should rise. Vision should re-emerge. Notwithstanding the decay of our rich 35,000 year old culture, we should be tolerant of diversity yet, intolerant of injustice. We Indians will live and let live and make this this world a better place.