My first post!

Why should I blog?I debated long and hard about what my first blog should look like. I talked to a number of my friends, including some who are celebrated bloggers. As I watch “The Assassination of Jesse James” by Coward Robert Ford, and chat with JS, my friend, I type these words.

I initially wanted to blog in order to share my thoughts. I think a lot and about far too many topics - reason behind human existence, campaigns of Huang Di - the first emperor of China, the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, the secret of dark matter, politics in India, the financial crisis, evolutionary drivers of love, and the right approach to overcome terrorism.

Then I thought, maybe I could share my story. I am blessed in that I have had an interesting and colorful life. I lived in Basra and heard Iraqi and Iranian armies exchange artillery barrages. A year later, I managed to lose myself among the beautiful bikini clad women on a Brazilian beach. At age of 24, I sneaked into and slept in the canteen of my workplace in Bangalore too afraid to go home as the Gujarat pogrom erupted as a testament to human barbarity. Thereafter, I saw the Ground Zero emerge from ashes as a testament to the will of a great people unbowed by tragedy. It was a long journey from the empty sack seat on the floor of my village school to the hallowed halls of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, and eventually to the futuristic classroom at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business.

Then I thought, maybe I could share my humor. Laughter is an essential part of my being. It is depressing to me if I enter a room, and the room doesn’t lighten up and everyone doesn’t start laughing. Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, asks in Gladiator, the movie, “What will history remember me as? A tyrant? A philosopher?” I have a question appropriate to my very humble station in world order. What do I want to be considered? An immaculate investment banker? A standup comedian? A philosopher? My choice of the blog’s name – Ibn-e-Sina, indicates my personal preference.

Iday, my blogger friend wants me to join him for a coffee. Maybe, it is just a ploy to kick me out of his apartment. Whatever be the reason, I need to stop writing.

In the final analysis, I will write what I feel like in the sincere hope that you will like it. Isn’t life about doing what you like?