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June 04, 2005
Introduction
Who am I ?
Hello World.. My name is "Nachiketa v0.1" (i.e. Nachiketa Version 0.1). Well, that is my pen name. Why "Nachiketa v0.1" ? The first name Nachiketa is inspired by the character from Katha Upanishad. By choosing Nachiketa as the first name, I hope & wish to emulate the spirit of Nachiketa in search of truth. The last name "v0.1" stands for "version 0.1". Yes, that is current version of myself. Do the people have versions just like man-made objects ? I believe, they do. By choosing to version myself, I would like to emphasize that there is no absolute knowledge. And any truth is contextualized and it evolves.
The purpose of my current journey is to learn something from others & the world. By exposing my current understanding to the world, I hope to achieve a better clarity to my own thoughts. By eliciting feedback from the world, I hope to refine myself.
Current version of me
Each version is snapshot of my current opinions, worldview, beliefs & understanding. My current version is 0.1. I plan to increase the version number whenever there is too much of incremental change in my worldview, beliefs & understanding.
Wiki versus Blog format
I believe that a mixed medium of wiki & blog is a better tool to represent one's state of mind and track it through time. Even though the current effort is in blog format, I plan to use as much as wiki model. Whenever I get a new insight/understanding on the same topic, I want to edit the existing post instead of dispatching it as a new post. So all the articles would represent a snapshot at that time of my opinions, world view, beliefs & understanding.
Categories of my current writings
1. Ramblings on self-help
2. Contemplations on India
3. Ponderings on human existence & human condition
4. Musings, tidbits & unanswered questions
Ramblings on self-help
Some like to use word "spirituality". For me, the word "self-help" always conveyed a better connotation, for I indulged mostly in Self-help efforts.
I would like to warn the reader of my current mental dispositions, for they definitely color my writings: I am an agnost (or rather atheist), I am a naturalist, I am a post-humanist. I would always prefer analytical approach over faith.
The kind of tools of trade which interest me are Sartre's existentialism, NLP, Stephen Covey, Mediation etc.
Contemplations on India
Well, I am an Indian by birth. The identity of "Indian" does sound too narrow before my other identity that I am "Human". At any point of time, I would like to forego my Indian identity in favour of identity that I belong to bigger community called Humans. But the Indian identity seem to be inescapable, for I do spend huge amounts of mental cycles reflecting on India.
India has had a glorious and noble past in history. But I am not self delusionalist. We did and do have our share of problems which plagued many a civilization.
Though my writings are mostly regarding the current & future India, my intention is not to belittle India's great philosophic & spiritual contributions to the world in the past history. (I may sound a pessimist for spending mostly on the downside instead of celebrating India; but trust me, I am great optimist in a much greater future for India).
Ponderings on human existence & human condition
Musings, tidbits & unanswered questions
Posted by nachiketa at June 4, 2005 05:30 PM