Think It Yourself

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A brief introduction to this thinking self

I have always found the idea of self introduction a bit fascinating. Every piece of conversation carries an intention, an intention on the part of speaker to convey a message. With that message, they want something in return. Maybe it was a request and speaker wants something. Maybe it was a proposal and speaker wants to here a yes. Maybe it was an answer to a question and speaker wants to be graded for it. An introduction, in my view, is an attempt by speaker to make listener think in a certain way about them. They give name in a way they want to be addressed, they give their attributes which they want listener to appreciate and converse about, they give their personal thoughts they feel listener would admire. The entire process can be a bit confounding.

But as with any conversation, the more important party is the listener. The speaker may have any intention, it’s up to the listener to decider the message, because they think for themselves. I’ve started this blog to bring a variety of messages, some stories, some meditations, some originating in my own mind, some inspired by people around me. With every message, I have an intention of invoking a certain thoughts in readers. But I am still the lesser party here, because I intend for readers to Think It Themselves.

Theatricalities aside, I’m an Aviator who aspires to become an Academic. Brought up by a supportive family, I was free to choose my calling, which got me to wonders of flight, which in turn opened my eyes to the world. My thinking has been majorly influenced by my mother, who was a great thinker and an academic herself. Apart from them I have been picking bits and pieces from wise teachers and smart friends. Seeing through different lenses, I have developed a World-view which I think is worth sharing. The best part is that the journey has just begun, and there is still so much more to learn.

I fix Brahmastra: Part One

Spoilers ahead:

There’s no doubt Brahmastra has been one of the most awaited hindi movies in a long time. Promising to kick start a franchise in line with famous ones in Hollywood, I was one of the hopefuls as well. But when the marketing dropped, my hopes started dropping too. Too much songs with newly married leads, too little world-building. Early reviews were indicative of the same, I still went to see it for myself, and God it was such a let down.

Juvenile dialogues, inconsistent characters, unconvincing acting, and a very surface level exploration of world it was aiming to build. Even the love story they wanted to be heart and soul of this movie fell flat. The ancient Indian wisdom creators claimed to be inspired from was just there as lip service. Astra as per epics is generally the name for enchanted projectile weapons, but over here they were shown as wearable talismans, they should have been called yantras instead. Even how do they work wasn’t clarified, everyone is wearing one, but the hero has it in him. Even the working and history of secret society Brahmansh has been glossed over in exposition. What is their role in society, what have they contributed too, how do they select members, nothing has been clarified. Even the antagonist remains an anomaly, why is he in a statue form, how has he got those three followers, how does he transfer powers to them, while others have to wear those Astras on them.

All these questions shouldn’t have been raised if the storyboard was worked on with same focus as the special effects. What ended up on screen looked like a school play in terms of storytelling. The premise was decent, nothing wrong with that, but the execution was immature, even an amateur story writer like me can say that. It has been jogging my mind for past couple of days, how could I have written that? How would have I improved character motivation and given the universe more depth? Here’s my take on it with the same premise.

Brahmansh, a society built by Rishis who were trying to find the secret behind world’s working through tapasya and yagnas. They unlocked the energy driving forces of nature, they created yantras to invoke, contain and control them. They named them after their properties, calling the elemental powers as such, and calling other powers the name of animals they resemble in nature, just like we used to name stars and constellations. They turned those powers in tools, weaponised them and called them Astras. They intended to help society with these powers, protect it and give it direction. At the end of it, they unlocked the supreme energy, the ultimate energy of creation and destruction, the Brahma energy. They didn’t know how to control it, now that it was released. It was laying inconceivable destruction, and Brahmansh were helpless. Then the elders sacrificed themselves to contain the power into a Chakra, and called it Brahmastra. Now keeping Brahmastra away from other humans, and to keep its powers contained was one of the prime directives of Brahmansh. They went back to civilisation, started helping them in the ways they can. To be a Brahmansh, you needed innate capability to be able to channel the Astra’s powers. For this reason, the numbers kept dwindling for a lot of history. To find a potential Brahmansh, they had a Manas Astra in form of a headband, which gives the users psychic powers. But still, travelling in old days was a difficult task, and only a few Brahmansh could achieve full potential of their Astras. The capability of Astras were also dependant on capability and emotional state of users, so they had destructive tendency if user lost control over themselves. That’s why Brahmansh avoided lust for power, as it was detrimental for their own good. A few instances had shown that, resulting in inner conflicts. That’s why they depended on societal leadership. If the rulers were good, they flourished and created monuments, if rulers were bad, they would scram into shadows. The worst phase happened during colonial rule, when British subverted Indian culture, and Brahmansh were reduced to a skeleton crew, only good enough to protect Brahmastra.

After independence, they start rebuilding again. They build their new Ashram in an island in Andaman and Nicobar, near the Kalapani prison where many members were imprisoned before, and away from large population. Then comes Dev, a child from a well off family which lost everything to freedom struggle. Having lost last of his family and recently orphaned, he is picked up by Brahmansh leaders to be a new member. He has innate capability never seen before, he masters not one but multiple Astras. But he also is emotionally volatile, and that roots from deep trauma. He believes Brahmansh could have taken active leadership and guided the society with its power instead of hiding away. That way, his family and many others wouldn’t have suffered. With modern communication and travelling, it would be easier to grow Brahmansh into a large and formidable force. The elders know this isn’t the right way of thinking, and has never bore good results in past. But Dev is too good and powerful to listen to them. Only person who can calm him down is Amrita, his love, his one true guiding light. She keeps his ambitions from straying away. She has become powerful too with Dev. But things change when she informs him that she’s pregnant. Dev’s ambition resurface. He can’t let his child be born in this unsafe world. He can’t let his child lose everything like he did. So he decides to take things in his own hands. He gathers some of the Astras he has mastered, including Kavach and Manas, and goes to master one Astra nobody has ever been able to, Brahmastra. The powers it contains, will allow him to make the world a safe place, for everyone he loves. And he is the master of Agniastra, the closest Astra to Brahmastra in nature. But Brahmastra is untameable, nobody has even invoked it in millennia. The uncontainable Brahmastra starts wrecking chaos, but Dev is undeterred. He is determined to master Brahmastra at any cost, and he has Agniastra, the power of which allows him to withstand its might. Brahmansh are helpless, but Amrita is not. She, a master of Jalastra confronts her husband. Nobody knows what exactly happened on the island, it went underwater, and only two pieces of broken chakra of Brahmastra made it to other island on Amrita’s boat. The couple is nowhere to be seen. Dev lost the very thing he wanted to protect.

Brahmansh has to scatter again, the elders decide to move Ashram close to Himalayas, where they first assembled. With Manas Astra gone with Dev, its difficult to track new potential Brahmansh, so the growth of society is again slacked. The two pieces of Brahmastra are given to two bright young members, an artist and a scientist. The members of Brahmansh tend to be bright people, for they have an innate understanding of world and the energy driving it. The scientist is living in Delhi, working in his penthouse on his next astrophysics project. He is ambushed by two men, both demonstrating near superhuman capability. He hides Brahmastra with illusion and dons his Vanarastra to escapes them. Thinking he eluded them, he goes back to recover the hidden piece, but is ambushed by a third lady. This one has real superpowers, psychic capability which immediately subdues the scientist as he is taken by surprise. The lady binds him and starts piercing his mind, this is the power of Manas Astra. She starts getting glimpses of all Brahmansh, but this search triggers telepathic flashes in an unsolicited character. Shiva, a carefree yet selfless guy, working as a guardian at an orphanage by day and DJ by evening is in Dussehra mela, suddenly starts getting visions of people he has never seen before. They are weak at the moment, nothing but light flashes. During the festivities, he gazes upon a face, most beautiful face he has seen. Suddenly the selfless carefree guy wants someone for himself. She’s standing a the front of puja pandal. The automatic fireworks designed to burn Raavan effigy miscues a bit, and a stray streak fires a bit too low. It’ll land close to where the girl is standing, so Shiva, who’s pyrophobic though, is suddenly over his fear and twitches at the fire. He doesn’t know how but the stray firestreak deflects towards sky away from everyone, and burst in an unreal fashion. Everyone is enthralled, and overwhelmed Shiva passes out. The events from here till Shiva reaching the Ashram could follow the same story, with some improved dialogues.

The story could have begun in film where it did, with addition I said shown through flashbacks and narration. The reason why some people need to wear Astras while some can channel the energy within themselves would be because of Dev’s mastery. He was able to master many astras, Agni, Manas, Kavach, Jal, Vanar, and Nandi to include some. He was able to use basic powers of Astras even without wearing them. And through powers of Manas Astra, he had learnt to share powers with anyone he wanted. That’s why Amrita, whom he loved most was more powerful with her Astra than others. When Amrita went to stop him, he wouldn’t listen, so she channelled all her powers to break the Brahmastra Chakra, but that unleashed even more destructive power. With his wife and unborn child in danger, he tried to contain the energy himself, but even he was unable to. Amrita gives her Jalastra to him, to help him use both fire and water. In containing the Brahma energy, Dev turns into a statue, one of the mysterious powers of Brahmastra. Thinking her husband is gone, Amrita takes one piece of Chakra and disappears. She’ll keep doing her task of protecting Brahmastra, but doesn’t want her child to go down the same path as her husband. The remaining pieces are handed over to Dev’s best protégés, masters of Vanar and Nandi Astra, while next most powerful Guru is made the new leader, as former leaders fell trying to stop Dev. But Dev is still alive inside that statue, not fully conscious, but in emotional consciousness state. He’s yearning for his family, keeps looking for them with Manas Astra. Amrita is trying to fight his advances, she has understood, in this form, he is unstable. She doesn’t want him to know that they have a son now. Dev grows impatient, trying to look for her. In his anger, he inadvertently activates Agniastra. Amrita sacrifices herself, but protects her son. A young Shiva, who has power of Agniastra through his connection to his father, is unharmed, but unable do anything to protect his mother. He doesn’t even understand what’s happening. But Amrita’s sacrifice has protected him from his father’s discovery.

The broken soul of Dev has nothing left to care for in the world. He’s just a manifestation of his anger and ambition now. Through his Manas astra, he starts looking for potential allies, kids who could have become Brahmansh. He picks one Junoon as his primary disciple. Through psychic connections, he brainwashes her and teaches her use of Astras. He does the same with two others, Zor and Raftaar. As he’s physically not present, it takes some time. He transfers Astra powers he has mastered psychically. As he doesn’t posses Vanarastra and Nandiastra physically, Raftaar and Zor only have fraction of the powers, which they gain fully later. Then he sends his disciples after Brahmansh. Most live a private life, but scientist Mohan Bhargav is quite famous, so he’s discovered first. When Junoon uses the Manas Astra to discover all hiding Brahmansh, this reactivates the psychic link in Shiva which had been broken for years, now he can see glimpses of what his father sees through the powers he shared. This, coupled with his yearn to protect Isha, the same yearn his father had to protect his family, activates his Agni powers. Every time, he feels the need to protect her, his power comes forth. Guruji helps him in channelling that power. After the final showdown, when the once again connected Brahmastra goes out of control. Isha is right in way of danger, and Shiva jumps to her rescue. Shiva is ready to sacrifice himself for her, and this calms down Brahmastra, just as the sacrifice of first elders had in the beginning. Brahmastra can only be tamed with selfless sacrifice. But in this process of rejoining and calming, Brahmastra has absorbed its stray energy. Thousands of kilometers away, the statue breaks, and Dev, who has regained his physical form flies up in the sky. He has spent decades trapped with Brahmastra’s powers, no one knows what that has resulted into, and what mental state he is in. That is a question for another day.

This storyline, coupled with some mature dialogues could have resulted in a deeper world, that I am certain of. A lot of questions still arises, but they are of intrigue rather than confusion. For a franchise, a lot of plot points are needed to be left for a sequel, but if you don’t put a solid foundation first, there would be no excitement for it. I still hope the series continues, and the story matures with coming installments. Till then, it’ll remain an unfulfilled potential.

Memory is a weird thing

It’s weird how there are some things you don’t want to be reminded of, but don’t want to forget either. The emotions they bring, are the emotions you miss, but it’s the feeling of missing them which puts you in a spot.

Just got a call from JustDial. They keep calling from time to time, to keep their database of professionals updated, in this case of my mother. But one thing they’ve failed to update is that she not with us anymore, for a while now. But I guess their database doesn’t have an option to update that, so they keep calling.

But how does that make me feel ? To be reminded of her absence, it surely doesn’t feel nice. But it does make me proud of her accomplishments. It feels nice to imagine that some people might still be clicking on her profile, hoping to get helped. Leave other aside, the fact that JD still keeps her in their directory, it feels good. It feels she’s still there, in digital memory and real.

So everytime I get that call, I feel all of it, all at once. Some feelings I don’t want to have, some feelings I don’t want to lose. So when today I told the agent to not call again, as I’ve done it a lot of times before, she hung up, and my heart sank. What if she really does it, what if I don’t get a call again? Do I really not want to get that call?

I really hope, they call again.

Future of aviation training in India: The role IGRUA must play

India is poised to be the third largest aviation market in coming decade. Even with disruption like covid pandemic, strength of our domestic demand kept most airlines afloat. By all estimates, the market is going to grow positively from this point, very likely exponentially. This growth will fuel a demand for trained professionals. The critical need will be for the jobs which require specialised experience to be working in position of responsibility, namely our pilots and engineers.

As the airlines have grown at a faster rate, the time it takes to transition from First Officer to Captain and further to trainer has reduced. But the standards needed to be in these roles cannot be compromised, hence FOs have had to learn same content within a shorter duration. Airlines have managed to provide required positive learning environment by following best practices from around the world. Current airline learning environment has been highly dynamic, constantly evolving to match the requirements, and so is their recruitment standards. The kind of candidates who could cope up with such dynamic progress have to be assessed thoroughly. Over the years things like psychometric tests have become part of induction process. The better prepared recruits at early stages of training make the operations safer. For this, we need to look at where they come from.

Before they begin their airline journey, aspirants have to get their Commercial Pilot License (CPL) from any Flying Training Organisation (FTO), sometimes called flying school or flying club. They can do it in any country as long as they complete the required syllabus designed by DGCA. When we talk about FTOs in India, the title of premier institution has belonged to one place for some time, that is Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi (IGRUA). It has been at the forefront of pilot’s training in India since the day of its foundation. Its training standards are considered hallmark for every FTO in the region, its infrastructure and resources could be considered one of the best in the world, and its legacy is undisputed, thanks to long line of leaders it has produced. For these very reasons, IGRUA is the best candidate to lead the training evolution at grass root level.

Why we need such evolution in first place is because we are going to need visionary leaders to guide Indian Aviation towards a bright future. Leaders flourish when responsibility and accountability are empowered with right support and guidance. Educational institutions are the best forum for open discussions on industries, and open discourses breed innovation needed for growth. All over the world, outlier specialised institutions have been the lynchpin of progress in their respective sector and country. Be it IITs for technology in India, which contributes to its largest export sector, or Wageningen university for agricultural in Netherland, which has made them biggest net food exporter. IGRUA has potential to become such institution of change for Indian Aviation. For that, IGRUA will need to evolve itself first.

A vision would be required for IGRUA, with a roadmap for coming years. The changes required would need a proactive approach towards training program, modify it in line with times. Tenets of Crew Resource Management should be taught and applied from day one. Towards the end, they should go through line oriented flying training with UPRT being part of training. Concepts of Airline operations and Safety management systems should be part of curriculum. An active feedback based training program will be suitable, and for that, cadets need to be trained on self assessment. Evidence Based Training should be the mantra for it.

IGRUA then should go about creating formal flying training standards on which FTOs could be assessed. Design a LOSA like program for flying training, as well as criterion for grading flying schools apart from DGCA FTD audits. IGRUA can become a research test bed of best practices for DGCA and other CAA for various purposes. An official oversight committee could be formed for auditing and assessing new flying training standards. Then the educational material and dynamic curriculum for flying training could be created in conjunction, available for all.

Further, IGRUA could go about creating an outreach program and open forums. In short, host and attend seminars, become part of a global FTO community, as well as become active in domestic aviation communities to a greater effect. In this age of connected world, a lot of this can be achieved through internet. For this, IGRUA will need to expand its online presence. It could start with a journal, a blog or wiki of some sort. Articles would be contributed from industry experts, former IGRUAns, as well as from staff and students currently in IGRUA. Other multimedia platforms like YouTube and podcasts could be used for various purposes, ranging from hosting webinars to disseminating information.

Slowly and steadily, most of educational material could be collated and provided from a combined source. We wouldn’t have to depend on foreign publications for our studies, both for traditional and current topics. IGRUA could become hub for open source knowledge, getting into offering MOOCs on various subjects which may not be offered in smaller FTOs.

Endgame of this roadmap is to create a Learned Society out of the community centred around IGRUA by above approach, which would then be contributing to growth of aviation in India not just by supplying good CPL holders, but by providing expertise in policies for the industry. Advantages associated with IGRUA are a huge number of Alumni who could co-operate for common good, sharing campus with first purpose-made aviation university of India, and being a body directly under MoCA, which gives it capacity to be an Institute of National importance.

A day in summer continued

Only social connect he had was his ‘friends’ on the island. For him, they were new faces everyday, for them, he was an old friend. Though even they didn’t know much about his past, apparently he is very private and secretive person. He wasn’t trying to be so today. Some days, an odd friend would comment something about a girlfriend from past, on other days, the ‘other’ friends won’t have a clue. Vic has made a ritual everyday to keep track of his friends. He would go to his Dive shop every morning, it hopefully being in the same place every time. Take out the employee register and check all the names, so that he at least know his employees you name. For the rest, he would call them champ, dude or bro, whatever short slang he could muster then. He had become an expert in guessing people’s vocation by just looking at their attire. Another social connect he had was with the tourists, many coming to his shops late mornings to book an afternoon dive. He would at times spend evenings with them, even nights on some lucky days. He was much more relaxed with ‘strangers’ as they knew as much about him as he knew about them. He could forget, without worrying too much about remembering.

One fine day, it was another warm 12th of July 2016. Vic was up and ready to receive new tourists at 9:30 in the morning. A group emerged from nearby resort on the opposite end of the beach. A couple of cute looking girl in them. They stopped by the shanty across the dive shop to grab breakfast. Vic was expecting a few customers as his register read an appointment at 10 AM. He could see them looking across towards his place and figured this could be them. One gaze particularly caught his attention. This girl, one in a white sundress, she was staring with a kind of familiarity. Vic had learnt to identify such gaze, it helped him figure who on the island were his friend. But he had never seen this in a tourist, is she a local guide, her dress doesn’t suggest so. Who is she, and why is she staring at him like that. The group gets up and starts walking towards the shop. “Okay, let’s see”, Vic gets up and gets ready to greet the incoming customers as they come close.

“Vic, is that you? God, I haven’t seen you in years. So this is where you had disappeared,” It was a long time since Vic has had a startling sensation. The element of surprise had become a bit redundant in his life. But what was this, was it something he had been waiting for all this time. A sign, that he wasn’t in some god forsaken purgatory. An evidence, that he has a real life as well. But what does this evidence leads to. Why he is in this situation, and how does it actually works. All these questions suddenly came back to him. Why now, and what is this ‘now’?

The Meticulous Citizen.

With the increasingly politicised world and frequent political process, questions of polity has become a day to day affair. A large part of population is affected everyday by this, and thanks to social media, much more actively participating than previous generations. Active participation for previous generation as citizen was limited to voting in elections, and participating in a few rallies, if they intended from time to time. Activism was reserved for a few, mostly those who were actually involved closer with active politics.
But with our generation, activism is reaching every doorstep. Everyone has means to raise their voice and be heard. Every news of politics, be it international or small regional ones reaches us. Regional elections are matter of national discussion, and affect national politics many a times. While this easiness of information exchange has strengthened democracy, it has also put it at risk. Inflammatory articles reach you as quickly and in much larger volume than before. Masses are more polarised, as their convictions are reinforced through fake news, which masquerades as genuine sources of information.
With all this, the task of being an effective citizen has become tougher. Vetting correct information from barrage of false ones is a critical skill to gain itself. And it’s not just about the fake news, even the genuine ones at times are not straight facts, but opinions based on events. Opinions, which may carry biases of the ones sharing them. How they sound to you depends on which set of ideas you carry. When those comes from people of authority, they carry a different weight. You may immediately feel accepting, or critical about it depending on which camp that information originated from. And that’s where the effectiveness of a Meticulous Citizen comes in play.
Being a good citizen means you do your homework before acting on any information. You vote after understanding the policy, not because you’ve always voted for them. You listen to both sides, and then do activism not based on ideology but on logic. And to apply logic, you need to be critical, not just of the camp you disagree with, but the ones you support too. In fact, a good citizen doesn’t need to stay in a camp, fealty is a thing of feudal societies. We live in democracies where every vote counts. We may take it for granted, but having ability to elect our officials is a great privilege. The only loyalty we need to worry about is to our society as a whole. To excercise privileges of citizenship is what it is, an excercise.

What do you think about it?

A day in summer

There is an island, not a deserted one, no. It’s an island in the middle of Pacific, and a famous tourist spot. Its 12th July 2016, a number of tourists have turned up for vacation. Spread across the island are little trinklet shops, beach resorts, and other stuff tourists pay money for. Water sports is one thing which gets some footfall. Coral atolls around the islands attracts some to seek below the surface. And that takes them to our guy, a diving instructor, he gets a number of students, some experienced, some not, but always new ones. Tourists are there to enjoy their summer vacation. The thing with our guy is that it’s always 12th of July 2016. He doesn’t remember when was 11th of July, that is a distant memory. He is stuck on that date. Everyone around him keeps changing, everyday he wakes up to new tourists, to new colleagues, to new residents. Sometimes the latter two are repeated, but never more than a few times. Everybody knows him though, for them, he has been living on the island for 5, or maybe 6 years. He doesn’t remember how was 2010, or even 2011, or any of the days since then. Why did he move there? Does he have anyone elsewhere? He remembers his mother faintly, a little bit of his father too, standing besides her. Not sure if he had any siblings, or many friends. He explored his personal belongings many time, but never found anything useful. He had ‘misplaced’ his identity documents except for his diving certificate, which just read a first name, ‘Victor’.

It’s not that he has been like this forever, he is sure. He has been trying to get out of this situation ever since he remembers. But memory can hold so much. Everyday he wakes up, and thinks about the previous day. So much has happened on a single day, so many times. There is always some bad weather, some stupid people, some accidents. Some days, they are happening the same way, some days they surprise Vic. Yeah, that’s what people call him. A long time ago, Vic did everything he could to escape the island, but it’s so far off. The little seaplanes take 4 hours to reach nearest major island, but something always goes wrong. At times it was typhoon, other times it was some malfunction, and Vic always ends up in the ocean. He does wake up in his bed at 3:30 in the morning, but the memory of the crash is nevertheless traumatic. He did try to use a boat, but the story isn’t much different. He never made it to the other land. For some reasons, he doesn’t know what happens after 2 AM. He doses off, goes in trance, loses his mind, but he always wakes up in his cottage at 3:30 AM. He remember being up with those hidpsters once till 3, but was too high to remember any details.

For a while now he hasn’t been stuck in the middle of the ocean. It isn’t that he doesn’t want to get out of here. It’s just seems fruitless to try doing the same thing. He is trying to understand what’s happening with him. He is taking his time, it’s not running out anyway. There’s a little hope in heart that someday he would get out of this like Phil did in The Groundhog Day. Oh yes, that movie. A tourist told him about this when Vic told his story around the evening bonfire. “Your story sounds similar to the Bill Murray movie, you should definitely watch that”. He did watch that, the island wasn’t an isolated backwater. Thanks to modern technology, it was connected with whole world. Vic would spend a lot of days on the Internet. He did keep updated with the world, he needed to lot of time, as world was a little different everyday. There was no drastic changes, the history was pretty much the same, just a little odd thing here and there. World war 2 still happened, humanity did reach the moon, but some world leaders didn’t live or die the same time as Vic knew. He wasn’t on social media though, no Facebook, no Twitter, not even a google account. These could have given him some glimpse of his life before, some idea about friends outside of the islands.