Does Chicken Shout?

Recently my dearest friend pointed out the ills of eating non-vegetarian food. His point was simple: look at any of the carnivores, many of them are highly aggressive to the extent of being ferocious. On the other hand, herbivores are generally gentle. Now there could be exceptions, but he pointed out the example of the elephant, benign despite being the largest land animal.

I looked around for further explanation. A theory says that certain chemicals produced at the point of slaughter remain in the muscles which are passed on to us when we eat the meat. These chemicals are produced when the animal goes through severe pain and the resulting emotional upheaval at the time of slaughter. And the chemicals lead to a more aggressive behavior among the eaters (http://www.celestialhealing.net/mentalveg2.htm).

I can think of two ways to escape this. Avoid eating non-vegetarian food or devise ways of killing animals without causing pain. I believe there are already numerous ways to do the latter, but the mode of slaughter in most of the places (especially in the less developed areas) remains painful.

Now the bigger question: is killing animals fair, assuming the process does not cause any pain. Here are some thoughts:

One could very well argue that the universe follows a natural order. Living things are born to die. Some die early, some late. Predator and prey have been inherent to the natural order from time immemorial, or at least based on what we know. In a way, the equation plays an important role in controlling the population of each type (remember the economic model - predator-prey - dealing with populations of rabbits and foxes, based on Lotka Volterra equations). The context is clear. The natural order plays a critical role in balancing the world.

And we know that human beings and not necessarily at the top of this natural order. At least there were not as powerful as some of the wild animals before they evolved their order of cognition to a different level. Science fictions proliferate with imaginary powerful creatures that can spell doom on humans. In a way, things add up, form a circle. Killing animals and eating their meat does not sound unnatural.

To be on the safer side and to stop the cruelty in a slaughter house I advocate the immediate adoption of painless ways to kill the animals. As an aside I remember Peter Diamandis mentioning in the podcast with Tim Ferris about cell culture which can lead to the production of meat without killing animals. The concept sounds futuristic but does not look too far away considering the range of artificial environments we deal with. So maybe, we have a ticket waiting for remorseless cannibalism.

The Couple in the Train

The cabin in the train was fairly full by the time they came in. They looked husband and wife and there was little conspicuous about either. The guy was lean and upright, had a stubble. He wore a white shirt. His demeanor was more on the rustic side. She was short and plump, wore a long black robe that highlighted her religion. He looked around 40 and she must have been about five years younger (assumption by convention). The only time I conversed with them was through an apology when I mistook their bottled water for mine. He shrugged it off with a friendly smile. I noticed them having dinner soon after, from the same box, not conversing with each other during the time.

The train had three berths on each side to sleep in, one above the other. They had one ticket on the top, and the other middle. Soon after, she ventured to get on the middle berth; she could not, her bulk restraining her. He quickly went close to her, held her with both hands and helped her mount the berth. It was a natural thing that any guy would do for his girl, but the expressions on their faces were priceless. He had the calmest expression, his attention solely on her, oblivious to everything else in the world. She had a demure smile, looking around consciously, the beautiful look of uneasy coyness.

I am not sure others in the cabin noticed, but I felt the unhindered love flowing between them. It was beautiful and uncommon 'in these days of degenerating decency' (courtesy a famous regional movie dialogue). It was a minor moment to treasure and I wish them lots of love all their life.

How do you like your son to be?

In one of his podcasts, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev talks about having friends. He has an interesting suggestion to test whether we are eligible to have friends. Stay alone for a whole day, do not sleep, do not read, just stay alone and watch the mind. At the end of the day, ask oneself whether it was good company. For instance, the simple "Did I like my thoughts? or Am I a good person?". He says the answers are direct clues on whether other people would like to be around us.

Connected to the above, I remember a forward saying we should not do anything that we do not wish our kids to do. It is probably a good signboard for life. Before any action or even thought, it would be appropriate to evaluate whether one would approve of his son or daughter doing the same or thinking along the same lines in a similar situation in life. And let that be anything, from procrastination to thinking ill of others to an unwarranted exhibition of anger at the weak.

Risk Vs Uncertainty

In the book, 'The Signal and the Noise' Nate Silver talks about the difference between risk and uncertainty. He talks about this in the context of the American financial crisis in 2008. Specifically, collateralized debt obligation (CDO) (a stacked instrument combining mortgages) defaulted en masse leading to the meltdown. Before the event, the credit rating agencies were able to estimate the risks associated with CDOs, but they were blinded to the uncertainty around it. Risks were fairly straightforward, it was about the possibility of default for an individual instrument. Uncertainty refers to the cataclysmic domino effect that led to the mass default. In other words, credit rating agencies failed to understand the strong connections between various events that precipitated the formation of the deadly ripple.

I think the risk Vs uncertainty theme is not only relevant in the financial world but also in a much wider context or the life itself. Translating into the real world, risks are what we foresee or envision, uncertainty remains uncertain. Risks are usually uni-dimensional or at times may have a few dimensions, uncertainties are always many-dimensional. Similar to how we struggle to visualize anything more than 3-dimensional, we are unable to even gauge the gravity of the uncertainties in life. This is a humbling thought in many ways. Considering life is full of unpredictabilities of varying degrees, it is foolish to have attachments to worldly beings and things. To concretize the aspect, I would think of it as follows: I could be dependent on anyone or anything at any time due to the multitudinous possibilities. My feelings (in particular negative) about anyone is irrelevant. The thought tells me to place each and every happening in context and react with complete consciousness. It also emphasizes the significance of the little blessings (I mean even the minutest, a baby's smile, for instance, is huge).

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Pro Bronson's book takes up a string of relevant issues around nurture and does an objective analysis of each one of those. The author has chosen interesting topics to deal with and he meticulously goes into the details. The analysis is strictly research-based with a conscious effort to minimize subjectivity. It is by no means a book of prescriptions for parents; rather it is an in-depth dissection of various issues that educators and neuroscientists deal with.

The most interesting among the issues taken up are the one about a unique curriculum used in the US called 'Tools of the Mind' (http://thelearnersbreath.blogspot.in/...), a few eye-opening details on why children lie and how parents abet the lying process by being clumsy about their own utterances, and a few corrective ideas about praise, especially the unworthy sort of praise showered on children.

On the flipside, while dealing with each idea, the author quotes a plethora of research, which leads to the reader wondering sometimes on what the conclusion is all about. In a way, the objectivity at times hinders seamless communication. The reader does not take home any major eye-openers, though I should say, that may not have been the objective of the book. I would not say It is a must read for parents, but it is a good book to read and would be extremely useful for an educator.

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