Sunday, November 13, 2011

Ignorance is bliss

Life consistently teaches us various aspects of living. What we learn today benefits us tomorrow or in the long run. It wouldn't be wrong to judge life as being a continuous journey of learning.

I love the phrase of paradigm shift. The 'ah' or 'oh' moment when we come to know of something opposite to our thinking, belief and set of mind is the paradigm shift. Life is a linked-up thread of paradigm shifts.

Being ignorant is an important facet of our lives. The unpredictability of life makes it fun and full of joy. A life with spoilers would surely spoil it. What if you were a salesman and knew already that you would close that billion dollar sale? What if you were a mountaineer and knew already that you would never be able to reach the top of Mount Everest? The excitement, the enthusiasm, the hope, the motivation would certainly be not there at all.

Not knowing what would be the outcome of your efforts makes the journey of achieving something worthwhile. The journey more than the end result is what makes us enjoy our lives but not knowing the end result beforehand is the prerequisite. Hence the wisdom prevails... Life is bliss... Ignorance is bliss!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

The CIA Triad

Information Security is all about the CIA Triad -- Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. Often when we talk about Information Security we generalize it to IT Security which simply limits the overall general definition of Information Security. Information Security is the ensuring of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of Information System. Information System is any system which processes data -- even a sheet on which attendance is being taken makes an Information System.

Understanding the CIA triad helps us understand the Information Security posture of any Information System. The best way to absorb the definitions of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability is to know their antonyms:

Confidentiality --> Disclosure
Integrity --> Alteration
Availability --> Inaccessibility

The disclosure of sensitive information to an unauthorized entity would hurt the Confidentiality. The illegal alteration in original information would hurt the Integrity. The inability to access the information when and where needed would hurt the Availability. That means...
  1. Confidentiality is ensuring non-disclosure of information.
  2. Integrity is ensuring accurateness of information.
  3. Availability is ensuring access to information when and where needed.

The CIA Triad is pretty much dependent on each other as well. The breach of either C, I or A might let to the breach of other CIA Triad.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Laughing at what we cannot fathom

Smartness is overrated. You cannot be smart and yet successful. Similarly you cannot be successful yet smart. Were those people not smart who laughed at Galileo saying earth revolved around the Sun? Was Galileo smart? What really makes you smart? Thinking like the norm or thinking contrary to the norm? Whatever the case, smartness is overrated. What really matters is accepting one's lack of knowledge in understanding the unfathomable and trusting one's heart with what one believes in till the white light dawns -- making one change his / her belief.

Usually being humans we laugh at what we cannot understand or what we do not want to understand or what we think is ridiculous without going into intrinsic minute details or what we assume to be otherwise. Knowledge is a very good tool to handle one's lack of understanding -- the more you are knowledgeable the more you understand, I humbly believe. There is this saying which I love to use every now and then and it would be perfect time to use it right now... "Not ignorance but ignorance of ignorance is death of knowledge." Which means ignorance itself is not pitiable but rejecting the very fact that you are ignorant is pitiful.

So the next time someone says... The heart can think on its own. Air stores the spoken words which can be retrieved later on. There are planets like earth having living beings. Humans can regrow their organs. Do not laugh, respect the idea and keep silent. Remember, humans can fly now, O genius!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Appreciation Matters

There are many little things which we tend to ignore that matter a lot and have prolonged consequences. It is a matter of very subtle understanding to know that we get the most crushed and disheartened from the people who are very close to us. How often do we shout at our siblings just for the sake of shouting. We always belittle their ambitions for no good reason. We seldom support their success and always highlight their failures. The confidence of an individual is shattered the most not by anybody else but his/her own parents, brothers and sisters. Do not do that! Do not touch that! Look what you have done! Stay out of my room! Do not play here! We most of the times give importance to material things rather than our own blood. Is your laptop more important than the heart you broke of your little sibling just for touching it? Certainly not.

The words we use during our family conversations can encourage and discourage someone and somehow we negate this fact a lot. Often more than we notice we do not appreciate the relationships that are very close to us. We take them for granted. It might be because we get such precious relationships without much conscious effort. A simple gesture like thank you on receiving a glass of water or cup of tea can spread instant gratification. If we start using words like please, kindly, sorry and start taking responsibilities of our deeds the world around us would become a touch better for certain. We all like to be appreciated be it parents, siblings, teachers or any body else around us. How often do we appreciate the garbage collector of our street? How often do we appreciate the sweeper of our office? These are the little tiny things whom appreciation can give a pleasing feeling lasting for eternity.

Please the next time someone does a good thing for you surprise him/her by saying thank you! And yes, thank you for reading this. :)

Self Belief

We all feel gloomy and redundant in many phases of our lives. In those trifling moments we tend to go into our shells and want to spend some time there. The good with the bad and the bad with the good are part and parcel of life. We have to live with what we get that is for sure. Somehow in such phases we underestimate the power of sharing. When we are feeling down we do not want to share or talk about it. From my experience the mind that creates a problem has difficulty solving it. That is where sharing helps a lot. When you share you start feeling lighter. The burden held by one is shared by more. Moreover, you might get a solution of your problem through sharing as well.

What really gets us going? Is it Hope? Inspiration? Motivation? Faith? Belief? Trust? Ultimately it is a mixture of all these that gets us up each time we fall. Falling down is not an issue at all but not getting up and giving up is where the true mantra of life and living is lost. When we are feeling down that is where our hopes, inspirations, motivations, faith in our thinking, belief in ourselves and trust in our abilities kick in and make us stand and deliver to the best we can once more. Having something that we can always rely on in hard times would always breathe new life in us. That reliable force and phenomena is none other than our own belligerent self.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Mere Human

Isn't it so that we are right even when we are wrong? Why do we impart such ignorant behavior? Why do we tend to be like that? Why do not we just accept our mistake and let it go? Is it due to lack of knowledge? Is it a manufacturing fault or something? If it really is a universal fact then anything associated with humans has the same chance of being wrong as being right.

Let us take some generic examples here...

1) It is perplexing to know that Science with all its glory is still in constant process of evolution or I dare must say confusion. Classical Physics and Modern Physics are the epitome of this perplexity.

2) How many religions are there in the world? Can they all be right? They certainly are for each of their followers. Islam is right for Muslims as Christianity is for Christians.

3) All these arguments of whether homeopathy is right or allopathy holds an upper hand certainly give murky view of ayurvedic medicines.

The human thought process is not consistent. There is nothing permanent about what is being said, believed and done. What is taboo today would be altogether a common commodity for coming generations.

We all are mere humans after all!