Letter to Ansh — 3

Dear Ansh

It is just past 3pm on the 26th of January 2019. I am back in Melbourne after a week long business trip to Singapore. Today is Australia day and it is also the republic day of India. The day is the most important to both Australia and India. Today marks the day when both countries started the journey to become what they are today, modern democracies. It is a day of celebration and reflection.

While others get to celebrate only one day, with you around everyday is a celebration for us. I am so grateful to see you grow up. It’s only a couple of years and you are already a toddler and running around. I am so constantly amazed by your ability to pick up and remember all songs. You love to dance and already you are a better dancer than I am. But as your mother will remind, that is not a high bar to cross!

Your mother and I often debate about who you most look like. I am absolutely certain that you look exactly like I was when I was your age. While your mother thinks you look more like her. The reality is you have an “Ansh” of both of us. Your name Ansh is a bit hard to translate into English, but it loosely means key essence or crux or portion of. You are made up of the best of both your mother and I.

As you grow up you will often ponder about what is the meaning of life. There are several answers to this question and you will find your own in due course. But at a very literal sense, life is self preserving and propagating information. You see who we are at a physical level is very much defined by our genes. Genes are these micro-structures deep within our cells that contain encoded information. Our genes define the starting point of what we look like. The fact that we have 2 legs, 2 hands and walk upright and more is defined in our genes.

Each animal has a slightly different genes and they dictate the physical differences between them. The reason you look like your mother and I is because your genes come from us. Your genes are a randomized mixture of your mothers and my genes. It is like taking building blocks from your mother and me, putting them in a bowl and shaking them up to create a new set of building blocks. You will eventually grow up and you will develop your own distinctive characteristics but it will always originate from us, which in turn originated from our parents and so on.

We pass on the genes to our children and preserve the information inherent in them. In due course, both your mother and I will pass away. But you will carry on preserving the information carried as part of the genes. Your children and their children will continue the journey. Life will carry on.

However while our genes lay the foundation of who we physically are, that does not define who we are humans are. Humans as a species are not the fastest or strongest, yet we have dominion over all other animals and life forms on earth. That is because of our ability to think. Who we are is as much who we think we are, in the words of Descartes, “I think, therefore I am”.

You are a product of the raw material (our genes), as well as the environment you grow up in. You are very fortunate to be in a society like Australia. Australia is still young and free and the vast open spaces here beckon. Your thought process will be shaped by the people you spend your most time with, so be careful of who you spend most of your time with.

But who you are is not a product of just the raw material and the environment, you also have free will. You have the choice to be whoever you want to be. Most people in the world are unaware, or unwilling to exercise this choice and will complain about how they never had the chance due to the poor start or surroundings. But there will be others who will barrel through the difficulties of life by taking on personal responsibility and better their circumstances.

Choose to be around these people.

These people have many characteristics, key among them is personal responsibility. It means that everything that happens to you, you deal with it without complaining or self pitying. It means that you take conscious steps to better your position by reshaping the environment to suit yourself.

First and foremost it means thinking for yourself.

Beware of groupthink, for it often will lead to disastrous results. Common wisdom is not necessarily a bad thing, many things we do have a basis in history. We walk on the well trodden path because unknown dangers often lurk past it. But when you do rely on common wisdom, make sure to question its underlying assumptions and constantly check if they still hold true. A young elephant is often held down by a small peg, when he grows up he can easily uproot the peg, but he thinks he cannot do it because he was not able to do it as a kid. Dont be like the young elephant and constantly examine the basis of all things.

Do not choose to be a contrarian for the sake of being one. Being a rebel alone should not be the end goal. Rather you should always examine the position of each party on the merits of objective facts and reason. And choose to stand by a position which holds true in light of them. Do not worry about whether or not such a position is supported or liked by others. If you are satisfied that it meets the objective standards you have, then do not be afraid to stand up for it.

Do not pursue adulation from others for the sake of it, but rather choose to find who you are. And when you do, put down your flag and make a stand. The whole universe will revolve around your banner.

Your loving father

Moresh