At the very outset, let me make it very clear - this blog has nothing to do with gyroscopes, missiles, and such stuff. Like every one else, I too have opinions about how things should be, how they can be better, etc. And like pretty much everyone, till now, I have done nothing about it, except complain, and get frustrated, when things were not the way I would have wanted them to be.
Rather than spend all that energy in a pointless way, why not channel that energy into expressing myself online? Maybe it wont make any difference, but at least I can hope that there will be some impact!
For the most part, this blog will focus on India - simply because that is what interests and inspires me. And my target audience is of Indians, whether they live in India or not, and people who care about India.
Why "Inertial Guidance"? I admit - partly because it just sounds cool, and high tech! Has the air of something all of us are familiar with, and at the same time, something that most of us are not too familiar with! In a way, it is about "thoughts" - not actual action - so it symbolizes my inertia. If you get a mental image of a fat guy typing away on a keyboard, you wont be too far from the truth (thankfully, not too fat, at least not yet!)
But there is a more profound reason why I chose to call this Inertial Guidance. I have always believed that the best way to do something good, is in a way that the idea can sustain itself. To put it differently, dont give a man a fish - teach him to fish. All the problems that we have with reservations, subsidies, etc., come about because these models werent designed to sustain themselves. By "sustain", I dont mean that these things should go on forever. Some ideas sustain themselves by going on forever, and some ideas sustain themselves by reducing the need for the idea itself.
Hopefully, this blog will be more about "Inertia of motion" - ideas that can sustain themselves, and less about my own "Inertia of rest"! If my enthusiasm level for blogging drops, there might be more inertia, and less guidance! I am hoping for active participation from the readers, to sustain the enthusiasm. Lot of comments, etc. And I am hoping for at least a few readers to be very active, and write articles in this blog!
Archimedes is supposed to have said - "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the earth". Presumably, what he meant was that he needed a firm footing somewhere outside the earth, to move the earth. I am not sure if cyberspace qualifies as "somewhere outside the earth", and whether this blog will offer a "firm footing" - but the attempt is not to move the earth, but to try and initiate a discussion that will hopefully have some impact in improving a few things here and there.
