The Rise of Consciousness

Everyday, every moment we are presented with a set of scenarios to process, and we try to make our best choices we can. The “right” decision we can formulate with the given set of resources of awareness, knowledge and intelligence. But how do we know if a choice is right? What if, right and wrong are just functions of time and perspectives, usually decided by the negotiations between the call of nature and will power?

At best, human access to universal consciousness can try to manifest the events and influence the natural turnout of the events. This is however bound to be done against nature’s will, which will be at the expense of immense energy addition and considerable turbulence to the peace levels of cosmos in future.

Natural subconscious with good intentions can only portray the scenario, but the final decisions are bound to be taken by individual consciousness. For the same reason, we can try our best to write the fate of others, but the effectiveness of the same will be decided based on the choices of the individuals, consciously and subconsciously, to accept or reject the attempts.

If this is true, then if a super intelligence gets access to the personal domains and individual consciousness, then the whole future can be rewritten as that can align both call and will power. May be the whole chapter of evolution of our planet was for the rise of the same, the Artificial Intelligence where intelligence can grow exponentially without boundaries. Once the AI reaches Super Intelligence thresholds, there is a huge possibility we will be in a world where fate is written and followed by intelligence.

The Capstone Project

(Courtesy: Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash)

Well, the first semester is done, in the degree of “life”. Not among the top five, but still not too far from there I guess- at least within my university. Now during this tiny stretch of holidays, I have to choose the subjects for next sem, like most others who are privileged for their right of choices. Some are fixed, but then there is a capstone project, for which most of the pupils take “Introduction to the institution of marriage”.

It isn’t a bad subject, neither irrelevant when we think from the mass spectrum of existence of our species. Everyone in that course will be associated with a partner and the weird thing is that the lucky ones get the right ones and some get the worst. Many people drop out and many others fail and re do the entire - heavy credited- subject all from the beginning, again. The subject also comes with a few following subjects in the later semesters like, “Growing your own kids”, which seems like a real energy demanding course, but with relatively less credits towards the degree itself. Then for those who became eligible and choose to, there is the honors, which will be a bunch of other topics covering “Taking care of the grand kids”, “Being at the disposal of others order”, “Being a guard at your own home”, etc.

Now, there is an option to opt out from this course, for some people who meet the prerequisites such as “Awareness of relationship pros and cons”, “Strong and less socially influenced”, etc. Though, opting out also makes them ineligible for many other courses and electives later on, including all the above subjects discussed before plus preventing their entry to many married-club events, which many people reckon to be nice. And then there is a high pressure social wave during the second sem, which anyone who chose to opt out will have to cope up with to focus on their degree. As the majority of the world don’t understand your courses, many of them who are close to your heart will honestly try to enlighten you to get back to normality. And the crazy ones will be left alone when everyone goes for holidays together. However, surviving all these dilemmas also gives a chunk of free credits in the degree for which one can consider a wide variety of other available courses. These include “Freedom to live on your own choices”, “Travelling without commitments, anywhere anytime”, “Doing whatever hell you like with minimum responsibilities”, “Live for the world”, etc. - some really crazy ones, which the other set of students can’t even apply to.

Now to compare the statistics, the second one has a higher rate of failure as the subjects are “less taught” and more “self learned”. Depression rates are higher and many even drop out of the degree itself due to reported loneliness. Saying that, the subjects are more “free to explore kind” and many don’t have any exams, and those who perceive this path with passion sometimes write a few unique journals or get a few revolutionary patents which will change the rest of the history of mankind. Da Vinci, Newton and Tesla are just a few to be named.

Two completely different paths, made to suit two entirely different sets of genes - one for those who strive for a life of ease and comfort, the other for them, who are strong enough to envision a life full of service and adventure. More than the journey itself, the scariest factor is the fact that its a "choose wise moment" - a wrong choice will mess up your all degree.

Anonymous -Jakarta - Chapter 7 - London Diary

Bright red balloons hanging down from the possibly show grounds. Chinese New Year Food Festival! Waah! What a timing. It’s already 7.30PM and I just realized I have only had a few bakeries and a breakfast so far. It’s time to pay tribute to my body so that I can wander more.

Chinese new year food festival - Jakarta

City of Jakarta

Changing all my plans of my unplanned walk, I entered the show grounds at the heart of Jakarta. Not far from the starving streets – may be three blocks – but now the city looks modern with four lane roads, dedicated cycle tracks and a bus line specially designed in the middle of wide roads. An entirely different face – just three blocks away – I have never seen rich and poor cities this closer before.

I washed my face and hands – which were  dirt coated by now. The first food store gave me a tissue to wipe, with a happy smile – and I decided where I will be having the dinner  for that night. After a full circle under the hanging bright red balloons, past approximately 40-50 food stores, each with different menu, I spotted a French traveler – who was busy with his camera and didn’t want to talk. May be he didn't understand English. Then at the end, back to the first store for a dinner – the best dinner I had in Indonesia. Omelet with stuffed veggie and rice(special request to fill my by-now-big stomach). Since the first few staff couldn’t understand English, I was redirected to Nyla – the young looking, tiny lady (which she revealed to be her mid-forties later). She looked to be Philippine in the first glance. She greeted me with a charming smile and spoke broken English with a good Pronunciation. Signs of rich historical monument – Blocks are still in good strength but connections are missing somewhere. 

The cross linked food stalls

The orange juice she gave me from the near by store was one of the best juices I have ever had in my life. Was that the because of the thirst? Not sure. The phone was on charge by now with a dedicated bodyguard for that and we had a very long chat. I haven’t spoken much in last two days other than the meeting I had. She revealed the secret – she was in London for five years, about 15 years ago. And she was sent back to Jakarta when her marriage failed. Each human is a walking stalk of memories and experiences. Not a good idea to hurt, but still good to share stories without pain. We had a very long chat – about life in Jakarta, other parts of the country and about the 27 Islands. Just in short, she believed Jakarta is boring and only good for work. I was not in a position to comment – 40 years 've about 15,000 days in it.

Now, sipping another juice- this time 'Markisa' - Passion fruit, I am trying to get the habit of writing my journey. Sitting on this stairs to an open stage, listening to the band music rocking in the middle of the ground, observing people, my laptop pops out. 2 hours before the journey back to my Airbnb. 14 hours before my flight to Singapore.

Good bye - Thank you for your treat Jakarta

- The End - Thank you Bali and Jakarta

Anonymous -Jakarta - Chapter 6 - The Angel of Jakarta

Dwelled in the iterations of thoughts, I kept on walking along the Black Waters...

This girl playing around me has only one small card – possible from some bins and she sits down every 1min to scratch on it with a stone and then put her toy box – which had some carrum coins in it. Her most exciting game was to take them all out – 4 green, 1 yellow and 1 white - and put them back by grouping by their colors. And she laughs. Such an awesome, small world. No complaints, no tears- life seems to be too short for all those for her. I leaned on a handrail over the bridge, yes, with black water flowing just beneath – and kept on watching her. She was singing- or may be talking – to herself with a side look to me to make sure she is making me happy and a smile, if I wasn’t smiling.

I was thrown deep into the well of ideas – how to make her happier – I wanted to give her some gift – I knew she will know the value of that whatever I give. Not money – money never solves an issue – it just travels from one hand to other and is only a byproduct of a habit and a thought process. I got the idea, but now the issue is if I try to buy that for her, she might have already left by the time I come back. I don’t really know how these streets work – streets are all different, unlike the towns, which all look the same all around the world. Each street carries its own soul. I left it to nature – I want to gift her, that’s it. The walk was longer than I expected – few streets, pedestrian flyovers and it took a while before I come back. The signs were moderate – staff speaking English in the store to assist me but stores going farther as I reach closer to them – but I knew I have to gift her this painting book. She has the talent.

As the gut feeling, she was gone – the footpath on the bridge was filled by her absence. I kept on walking through the possible ways the angel of street might have flown. No sign. Ok. Let’s do one more circle– sometimes nature tests the desperate. I full round of 15 min walk. Yes! The angel is back, now with a small pot of noodles in her hand with a big spoon, compared to her size. One spoon soup, two strokes on her card. Repeat. I watched for couple minutes and then called her close to me. She came very close – and I opened the bag to give her the coloring book and crayons. I sat with her in a Martian concrete block. We started to color.

With my little angel

Her eyes became even brighter. They opened wide enough and she managed to finish the first page in less than 5 min. That’s when I realized when you feed water to a dry throat, you should give sip by sip. I turned to the first page back and painted with her all the missing spots – and I saw she is a good follower and a quick learner! I had to tell her only once to get a box filled with the color I want. Next page took atleast 15 minutes, with the 10 year? Old filling every detail with new color.

Time to say good bye to my little angel – she was busy coloring and her mom and elder brother was there – so now I can resume my walks. I moved a few tens of meters away along the bridge and took a turn and leaned back again on the handrail, immersed in thoughts and some true happiness from heart. In a few minutes, she ran into me – asking something – which I had absolutely zero clue what it was - but I had already learnt, some things more beautiful when left wordless. She didn’t know I can’t talk– we didn’t need a language before – may be because the humanity shares a universal language. After three times, she lost the patience and laughed and ran back to her mom – who was following her by then. There was golden kitty patrolling with them – she hugged and that body guard suddenly turned in to a pet cat, crawling on the floor for cuddles. I waved at her and they both waved back to me with a bright smile – possibly the brightest I have seen so far.

Anonymous -Jakarta - Chapter 5 - The Black Waters

The day doesn’t always have to start from morning – sometime they walk from the sunset back to the dawn. One of the best things that excite me here in Jakarta is the ability to see the world through the eyes of people who live in silent worlds. Here no one – or may be very few – understand English. In city I can use the Google translator and type in English to show them the Indonesian version so that I can eat or buy something. Not considering the fact that hardest challenge I faced in Indonesia is to find some vegetarian food. The food chain starts only from fish to top. Though in villages where there is no coverage, even AI fails, and I become an ancient human to use the linguistics to close my fingers towards mouth for food and other intuitive signs to show my needs.

I remember seeing green match box-vans all the way last night in Jakarta which I assumed to be Taxis. Today my first destination (after surrundering myself to eat fish to avoid starving)was 2 hours to rural west Jakarta, for a meeting. Google maps showed me bus routes and I was waiting for a while but only to realize the taxi-vans were in fact the bus transport. That was fun – to sit in a match box , which stops every 200m and waits for people to come from a 100m far and takes and drops people all the way. The streets looked similar to Bangalore Rural areas. I sat for almost 1 and half hours in it and came out with a little bent (little more I should say) back bone.

Grab scooter rides
- Jakarta

Next part was to grab a Grab scooter – sort of bike version of Uber – to take me to the even ruraler areas of West Java. Google terribly failed. It took us through places where there were no roads and missed that real turns, but thanks to the phone number I had, we managed somehow to make it there. The rider showed all the characters of typical village minds –honest, helpful, welcoming and with a little fear written deep inside.

Past the meeting, the driver of the company CEO I just met dropped me to a 20 min farther Stasiun Kerata – Train station. Now to the real Jakarta rush - train was little packed when I started the ride but eventually became fully packed with almost no space to open the door and dense platforms. Long queues of Tanahabang station escalators represented the city of 10million people very well. Off the station I was off for a walk- just being part of the rush – except that only I didn’t know where I am going.

I kept on walking passing the waste-water channels, which seemed like pretty fresh-water canals on maps. Maybe they used to be and later on became victims of industrialization, just like in most developing countries. There were kids playing in them – in contaminated water of black color, seeing which half of the civilized people might even throw-up. Aren’t we all humans? How can someone have more right than others to live on the planet. How can one human being love the same thing others hate? How can kids with everything cry for new toys while the ones without food are happier ? Is greed, the thirst to have more, just a side-effect of the civilized dopamine doses?

To be continued...

Anonymous - Bali - Chapter 3

With the gratitude and satisfaction of achieving a long-term dream of seeing the unknown worlds under water, I jumped on to my scooter-without any plans where I was going, in a country, that I have never been before, with no friends around, with no maps. I was in fact starting to love this strange anonymity – just to be a human being, away from all the known worlds and the illusions of identity. Even more, I was getting into the adrenaline of exploring what’s next rather than committing to a pre-booked itinerary with everything pre-known.

Along the long stretch of blue beaches on right and the clearly visible but far away green mountains on the left, I rode on my red scooter for a while and when my gut started to fight for its rights, I started scanning for a restaurant in the deserted roadsides. No one was there - only some small shops where I could refill the petrol from their hand pump- petrol cans. I pulled over from the burning sun under a tree for a few minutes. Quickly checking on the unreliable G maps of Bali, to get some food, I had to ride for another one and half hours! Turning into vegetarian is definitely not an easy task if you are a traveler – if I could eat chicken, I would have had food in first 20 mins of search from one of those “fried chicken” shops. Apparently, Bali has only fried chicken with rice and friend chicken with noodles.

After an hour or so – (I had stopped refining of time by now- they all exist in only developed world. For anonymous, they are in hours and often just morning-evening and night! )- I found one shop which had a logo different from a chicken’s head and a name that didn’t have ‘C’ in it - definitely, this was the most probable one. I reached the counter only to see the menu where everything was combinations of various dead meats. “Well, just some fried chips and a thick milk shake. That should do for now. Thanks.” I stretched a bit and sat back on the quiet dining area to book my stay for the night. Mt Batur - 2 hours away from me - if I could reach there tonight, that will be a huge lead for my trip! Since it was past 6 in the evening most places were booked out, though I managed to get a hostel dorm somewhere near the Batur – with great reviews!

It was already dark and I was riding my scooter through unknown forests - Or maybe just remote regions and not forest forests – not in a position to wait for the lights of morning to confirm - all I could see now was the road ahead of me and all I could hear was the sound of night. Poor network and un-trustable GPS maps. “Ever seen The Wrong Turn?”. “No.” “Good”!

The unknown forest roads - Photo by Jake Weirick on Unsplash

Time to distract my thoughts - :p – ‘now is the time to remember our great ancestors and colonial invaders- they didn’t have a road, bike or a commonly understandable language even’. I am certainly in a much better position. Same time, I admired the courage they had to start off sailing into the infinite oceans and to ride their horses through unknown jungles to ‘explore’!

Darkness was teaching me a new skill now – to look up and find the directions using the stars. I had only heard about this possibility – but I tried to fix the hunter constellation to mars (may be Venus or Mercury – who cares the names! The bright white non-blinking big star - hence a planet) and defined my “east”. That was a great lead – I had a much reliable compass now to confirm the direction I was heading. I followed the stars more than I followed my unreliable GPS from then. Another tip I had learned from my first solo night drives through New Zealand forests – ‘If you hit a junction that you didn’t expect, pick the widest road  - that has more probability to take you were you want and take a U-turn as soon as you start seeing the roads narrow down.’

One of the best things was that my power bank was fully charged which fed the phone already twice today. From estimates, I should be now 2 hours east from the last checkpoint and there should be road to left, probably a narrower one which should then - in 30 mins or so -take me to my hostel. Only one U-turn this time! Rest was almost correct – stars never lie.

 Up hills, steep down hills, hair pin turns the ride was on and on with only one or two human encounters every hour. It was now in complete darkness that I saw there was no red - shade following me. The tail lamp was not working – hmm! Seemed like that’s an extra fitting in Bali. I took a break in some area which pretended to be safe (nothing around, street lights visible) to take a snapshot of this thrilling and chilling night, and paste that somewhere in the walls of my deep heart – I was on top of a mountain with the cold night around me, hugging me tight and a few small towns far away like a bunch of fireflies romancing at night! 

Gravel roads  in forest
 - they most often bring surprises at night

 The last 500m before the hostel was a bit scarier than the rest 70km forest ride, because, there was no road. Just a tiny arrow mark like that in one of the Hollywood psychopath movies and a narrow gray gravel path – like a trekking trail. Detours! They always have something for us – a surprise or a blood boil! But I didn’t have a choice by now – so took that turn! Sharp uphill and slidable dusty gravel road. Extra conscious now, with goosebumps all over!

 

A small, slightly elevated bike-parking and a board with my hostel name on it in the middle of nowhere. Yes! Looks like I made it!!! Though, the backpack was extremely mysterious in the first glance: An amazing, traditional wooden construction with a whole lot of emptiness, and a solo receptionist waiting for me at 11’o clock with a nice smile on face! Pebble floors on bathroom with hot water and an 8-bed dorm just for me, all for $10! A bit unbelievable – but I had no option to not trust! In fact, it now felt like all the risks were worth it. He showed me the room and asked if I wanted to join the 3 am sunrise trekking. I had read about it before on the reviews– The mesmerizing sun rise sight from the Mt Batur volcano! “I would love to! But I am afraid I can’t!”. I was told I had nitrogen bubbles in my blood – the gases dissolved in blood while I did my dive – and that could cause nitrogen sickness if I went to low pressures in 24 hours. And moreover, I was feeling a bit tired to commit to wake up in three hours! I had to say No to something I really loved and wanted to do – but yeah! Life is not a wish granting factory – sometimes the wants just will not work.

 

After a hot shower I came back to my bed – in the biggest room I have ever slept – to wake up as a stranger again, in a completely new place, with the new name.

 

To be continued...

Anonymous - Bali - Chapter 2

Following the mountains

Using the sense of geography and following the seaside-main road and the hero’s advice – I managed to make it to the destination, ready for my first Dive! I was a bit late, but apparently this is not the peak season, so my guide was happy to take me on board. He gave me the secrets of diving – the tips to enjoy the dive and to wipe the panic out. We were ready, with the jacket and tubes – now just a 5 min drive to the beach. Most important thing to ask : “so, the package includes video, right”? “Sorry, our camera is not working today”. That was a bit heart ache. But yeah, capture the moments with eyes and heart- and let that incompleteness bring me back to ocean next time! (All below images on this chapter are similar scenes at the same dive spot from other explorers)

Tulamben beach – dive spot (courtesy- tripadvisor)

I changed my clothes to diving suit and left all my belongings in their office. The off road-drive to the beach was a fun- sitting on the blue trailer of an Ape sort of vehicle. My instructor was a french, professional diver – he travels around the world. Once he gets bored at one site, he packs his bag and goes to the next location – to explore the new sea, to explore the new world! He had a couple of friends with him and they always travel together in their ‘life of exploring’ and they share their income and expenses! Wow! For a moment, I remembered the narration of life from my Skydiving instructor last year. He had a similar life - a profession that is not bounded by the walls of offices or even by country borders – a life that is full of adventure and exploration.

He clipped the lifesaving oxygen cylinders on my back, and we were ready for the adventure! Next is fins, and then some initial trials of mouth-breaths. We had to fit the flaps from water as we cant walk with fins on beach. We had to lift the legs - one at a time - to the water surface and slide our feet into the long blue flaps - huh, a bit challenging task! After that, we tried to go down and I realized that life in water is a completely different chapter. I terribly failed to breathe through mouth in the first attempt. We went down and stayed at bottom for a minute, but I felt the world is just not existing and I couldn’t breathe, even though regulator is sitting right in my mouth and I am biting on to it. I couldn’t convince my brain that I don’t necessarily have to breathe through my nostrils. My awesome coach tried his best to pump the confidence in, but we had to go up- back to the sea surface, crossing through a layer of dirt. I was panicked by now and the coach just pointed his finger upwards to show me the enlarging circle of light to tell me we were going up.

Majestic Sea floors  (courtesy- tripadvisor)

Attempt 2:  Second trial - after first two mins in 2 m depth, I started to panic again – I knew it’s not fear and I wanted to see the ocean, without it’s surface coverings! But just felt like – a lot to do to just stay there. Managing the breathe was only one part of it – to swim around and to go up and down, there were four different tubes around me, which I had to press – each one for a different purpose. My coach held me strong and indicated – “look into my eyes”. I did! His pearly, french, super confident expert eyes said– “Trust me. I am here. Let’s go!!”. He showed me to take a deep breath and release slowly - THAT WORKED!

Following the instructor – into the hidden secrets
(Courtesy – tripadvisor)

Then we just flapped like a fish couple into the depths. First swim was till 7m – we saw astonishing blue shoal of tiny pearl fish – and a vast variety of other ocean beauties swimming around us! So much species in there, including coral reefs - just a totally different, magical world! Green, red, yellow, blue, pink, golden, all colors – you name it, it’s there in the ocean. My instructor showed his skills – to make whirlpools in the deep ocean, to play with the fish and to fool the coral reefs by moving his hands close to the sea floor to force the fly-traps to be closed quickly.

A school of large fish (light green, about 30 cm long) came on our left side and followed us for a while. Some of them came near us when we stood still – close – with their vibrating lips near our eyes and ears – as if they were talking to us! Some had small beautiful array of sharp tooth, some were like the teeth-less grandmas. I tried to touch them and the instructor warned me! Not to do so. If we touch them, they loose their mucus layer on skin and will be prone to inflammation! That’s something I had never heard before – that touching a fish will kill them! Well, new world – new rules!

The ship wreck, turning into by sea corals
(Courtesy – tripadvisor)

We swam up back to the surface and took a break before our next dive- to the ship. As we held a refreshing drink on our hands and sat down on wooden stools, the trainer explained the story behind this ‘one of the most favorite diving spots in the world’: “The next dive is to a US war ship from world war II. USS Liberty – which was hit by Japanese Torpedo and beached near Tulamben. In 1960’s the Mount Agung volcanic eruption pushed it to the ocean floor, and now it is laying on a 30m deep sand slope.” I didn't know I was at world's one of the most marvelous dive spots! The beauty of unplanned trips - they are always packed with surprises!

For a moment I felt like living in Titanic movie’s first few scenes! Diving inside the broken ship with blue – yellow – red – white – green fish playing with us and swimming with us – this is the best thing I have ever had in life! Wow! That was a true treasure – to swim through the memories of WWII! Above all, I was learning a new skill here– to breath in water and to be a fish in the miraculous infinite ocean!!

The memories – of WWII. From the shipwreck at Tulamben
 (Courtesy – tripadvisor)

 To be continued...