To Quote Eleanor Roosevelt

Something lighter.

I had read one quote long time back and was impressed. I did not remember the exact words and whom it was from. Since a few months I was trying to remember it and finally I got it today.

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. "
Eleanor Roosevelt
US diplomat & reformer (1884 - 1962)

Said with such brevity, it contains the guiding philosophy I try to have in my life. Of late I have observed that I have started to move from the first and second category to the third category of minds at workplace (though I still stick to first and second category in parallel).
So will be pasting a printout of this next to my workstation and hope it helps.

There are more quotations by Roosevelt many of which have been a part of our lives since yore and I never realised it. Some very inspiring.

Please share your favorite quotes, if possible. Its always a pleasure to read new ones.

The Universal reflection

I realized not very long back that I'm faced with few very fundamental (or not so fundamental) questions about our Universe and for whom I do not have answers.

How did the material of the Universe come into existence.. who/what created it?

Is there a boundary of this Universe.. and if there is, what lies beyond that boundary?

These questions have been answered vaguely by some eminent theorists and astronomers but the explanations don't seem to quell my curiosity.

If we talk about the origin of the Universe, we generally start with the Big Bang that happened some 15 billion years ago and try to reconstruct the events that followed. The Big Bang and the stellar turmoil that followed it are understandable. Many facts still need to be found, but more or less we have sketchy details.

I'm not worried about why the Big bang occurred. What intrigue me are the events before and long before the Big Bang. Where this 'universal' material come from? If Big bang happened 15 billion years ago, what was happening another 15 billions years ago.. or 100 billion years ago... or...........Billion billion years ago? Is there a cycle of events that starts with a big bang and finishes with the disintegration of celestial bodies? Even if there is such a cycle how and when did it all begin? -The question is especially for my atheist readers.

Now having decided that I do not have answers to any of these I try to think of existing 'configuration' rather than what happened in the past.

Even after much analysis I am not able to locate any tangible thing that is infinite (a quantity or set larger than any finite number). Some people may point at water drops in an ocean or sand grains in our deserts. These are huge numbers but still finite. Just that we do not know how to count accurately may not qualify something as infinite. So if we talk about stars in this Universe they may be finite too, just that we don't know the exact count.

Every finite thing, however big is enclosed by some boundary. What is the boundary in the case of our Universe? Where does it all end? And if there is a boundary what lies beyond that? Possibly some other Universe for which we have no evidence as yet. But then what is beyond that? We cannot go on for ever as no tangible thing is infinite. We may talk about new dimension in space and time which may help in arriving at some models, one of which says that if you keep moving in one direction in space for sufficiently long time (over billion light years) you will reach the starting point. Not a very well elaborated theory (this is where imagination can also have limits) but could lead to a possible answer in future.

These questions do not matter to us in our daily lives. We are born. We learn, earn, add value to the civilisation/society and die. Mankind progresses.

But when I ponder upon these vaguely answered questions I realise how insignificant can be our existence. Still we fight over 'petty' issues involving religion and race. This is another issue but I will refrain from discussing more about this now. With this post I just wanted to light a spark of curiosity in our materialistic minds.

The Heart lies in your Brain

It is never explicitly stated .. and people have started believing and relating to the opposite, as good as the sunrise from the east... in short they do not like the very idea of it.

Few days back I was discussing with a close friend about how she felt when I told her that heart doesn't think and neither hold any emotions. She was surprised first as to how stupid I could be so say such weird thing. But after some explanation using an example ( where heart transplant not changes how a person thinks, feels or loves but a brain transplant would, if it was possible) I was able to prove I was not being too illogical. But then, she still didn't like the idea and resented it, as it spoils the romantic perception of the heart. I agree with her.

Whenever we mention heart in a non-biological way we are actually referring to seat of emotions , compassion, love. Are these really originating from the heart?
On closer examination we realize that our heart is just another organ (though most vital) which helps us live by gushing oxygen rich blood through our arteries. And that's it.
It doesn't help us develop and display our emotions.

This is what I found when I went online to search the meaning of heart.

Apart from the biological meaning thefreedictionary.com defines heart as

a. The vital center and source of one's being, emotions, and sensibilities.
b. The repository of one's deepest and sincerest feelings and beliefs: an appeal from the heart; a subject dear to her heart.
c. The seat of the intellect or imagination: the worst atrocities the human heart could devise.
d. Emotional constitution, basic disposition, or character: a man after my own heart.
e. One's prevailing mood or current inclination: We were light of heart.
f. Capacity for sympathy or generosity; compassion: a leader who seems to have no heart.
g. Love; affection: The child won my heart.
h. Courage; resolution; fortitude: The soldiers lost heart and retreated.
i. The firmness of will or the callousness required to carry out an unpleasant task or responsibility: hadn't the heart to send them away without food.

I'm not surprised reading this as literature need not be scientific.

Our brain is the only place these thoughts; logical and emotional (not so logical) occur. Brain has separate regions for each kind of processes. It acts as a CPU (for processing) and also as a RAM and Hard Drive (for memory). The complex structure of brain still puzzles us in many areas.

So what surprises me is how did we land up symbolising heart as passion and everything non-logical. This sheer contrast is not just true for one culture, religion or belief. Almost everywhere I look, I see this 'confusion'.

Celine Dion's 'My Heart will go on' is what comes to my mind first when I think of any artistic creation based on the 'Dil' (Urdu for heart). It will sound so unpoetical, unromantic if it was to be sung as 'My Brain will go on'. Celine would have long been out of market :)
Or imagine guys giving their girlfriends brain shaped chocolates and pillows. Hilarious.

I guess this way of looking at it has developed over centuries. This may have been helped by our religious philosophers and priests when they said .. 'Behold !! The God is in your heart'.

Well in the end it doesn't really matter how we take it if this adds some beauty around us and as long as we don't get carried away by believing that we think from the brain and emote from the heart.

To this, I know, my close friend will say how does it matter even if we did.. :)