About

NOTE: I have copied the contents of this section from Damodar Kulkarni’s “About” section from his website¹, as I too intend to write on similar topics, and I have found his words to cover the things I want to say in a beautiful way. I have edited the About text formatting section a bit as I do like to use the italics, bold and quotes wherever required. I have also added some sections from the “Fundamental duties” section from the Indian constitution.

Welcome to my blog. Most posts here are aimed at general public, but I will also write a number of semi-technical posts aimed at people interested in computer programming.

I write here on topics I like, from areas of my interest. These mainly include education, philosophy, science, technology, religion, spirituality – and how these artifacts affect human life on individual and societal levels.

A welcome warning!

Sorry but I think this is required. The blogposts here do mostly raise questions and you as a reader are expected to answer them for yourself. They may occasionally represent some of my ideas and may contain some of my opinions.

I believe in freedom of speech and liberal humanism. I do not demand you to respect my opinions, you are more than welcome to criticize my ideas/opinions. I expect you also to not demand me or anyone else to respect the ideas that you find worthy of respect. I request you to evaluate ideas for yourself without following anyone blindly and come to your own conclusions.

Most of my non-technical posts would be focusing on the topics stated as the fundamental duties of every Indian citizen²:

It shall be the duty(fundamental) of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform.

As pointed out by a great thinker Dr. Ambedkar one must criticize the ideas they find unacceptable but not attack the people. He criticized and attacked the ideas embodied in what one might call “Brahmanism” but he was strictly against attacking people who happened to be born in that caste.

So if you are a devout bhakt [a devotee] or a believer or a comrade of some idea/ideology/religion/atheism who cannot tolerate any criticism of the ideas/ideology that you follow then this blog is not for you. You may not find things written here interesting. On the other hand, if you are a critical thinker and open minded person, I hope there is something of interest for you in here.

I like to draw your attention to this debate that happened on BBC, in which Mr. Maajid Nawaz, a liberal humanist Muslim thinker who was an extremist earlier, talks about this issue³.

About text formatting

Dijkstra has famously said [not in exactly these words], “I do not highlight parts of what I write as I write only those things that I consider to be important.” Dijkstra was a great thinker and a gifted writer, who could express his ideas very excellently and in a very concise manner. I do know that I stand very low in these abilities as compared to him but I try my best.

I’d like to draw your attention to another great thinker, Pascal, in this context.

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the(enough) time to make it shorter.

Indeed, it is very difficult to express your ideas in short and concise form. So, if you find me more verbose than what you consider to be ideal/optimal, I request you to bear with me.

Another thing, I do not like inline hyperlinks within an article/post as I find them distracting. Almost all references and links will be provided at the end of the post as footnotes. For example, see at the end of this about blog post.

Lastly, these blogposts are mostly written for personal education and hence I do not bother myself too much to provide references in a rigorous way, like you would find in a high quality academic journal. Having said so, I do strive hard to give references and internet links wherever I feel them necessary and/or to be adding value.

Comment Policy

I would like to quote Maajid Nawaz on the comment policy:

No idea is above scrutiny and no people are beneath dignity. – Majid Nawaz

I adhere to some(arbitrary) standard of comment quality that I like. It’s pretty liberal, and you are allowed to put comments critical of my opinions. I expect the criticism to be positive and by that I mean, the criticism must be directed towards ideas and not be a personal attack per se, I hope you are aware of various logical fallacies. If not, you may start by looking at the argumentum ad hominem attack⁴ fallacy. See logical fallacies⁵ also.

I finish by quoting Socrates:

Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.

Do share it with your friends and your feedback is most welcome.

[swananddhawan gmail]

That’s all! Happy reading!!