The Mirror Glitch

Today I had been to IIIT-Bangalore to attend a seminar known as “Mirror Glitch”.
The seminar was about seeing our identity in the digital world, and the ramifications of that. How we get lost in the maze, and start identifying ourselves with things that are not really us! And how to reclaim our authentic self amidst the digital noise. It was known as the @Mirror_Glitch!
The glitch in the mirror that reminds us all is not as it seems from outside. There is perhaps some broken part of us that is innate and that becomes the portal of reclaiming our true self.
The honorable registrar Mr. Sridhar started his beautiful speech to give the context of the seminar.
He gave the context with this thought provoking poem of Dale Wimbrow Sr.

The Man in the Glass

By Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr.

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he’s with you, clear to the end
And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

The Speakers

All the speakers were exceptional!

1. @Prakash_Belawadi - Renowned Filmmaker, Playwright, Actor and Aesthetics Scholar. Wikipedia
2. @Madhumita_Bhaskar - Vocalist, artist, founder - Shrota House. Shrota House
3. @Nisha_Khanna - Psychologist and Relationship Expert. Bye Tense
4. @Manan_Pahwa - Digital Experience Designer and Researcher. substack - blog
5. @Anup_Gupta - Founder - Mathongo. Twitter-handle

Prakash Belawadi

The most enlightening talk was from @Prakash_Belawadi.

He brought into discussion of aesthetics, @natya_shashtra, and how being human is defined by the nuances of aesthetics of ‘@rasa’, ‘@dwani’ and ‘@auchitya’. he was talking about the prejudices that get loaded in these AI systems, that bring in ‘@cold_shoulder’ to different nuances of being a human. He was talking about the universal human experience, and how as computer scientists we need to reclaim our humanity while building these systems. The idea was how to reclaim the human experience through aesthetics, creativity and expression, and integrate with the AI and the digital world.

We had some insightful conversations on our views on @aesthetics and @humanism. Just loved talking to him. We spoke of Tagore’s idea of the “@Creative_Unity”, and the idea of the “@Divine_Man”. And how through creativity, and aesthetic expression we reclaim our humanity. I was thinking that as I write poems and express my love. That makes me feel human, feel complete, feel alive. It was a great coincidence to learn from him that he was called by the Swedish embassy give a talk on Tagore!
He also shared that it was @Bankim_Chandra_Chatterjee, and his writings that kindled that original thought of human love, human divinity, and culmination of life’s purpose in love and service towards humanity. He spoke about the sacrifice, about the need to love, to connect and to reclaim our universal human experience.
It was insightful to listen from him how poverty, suffering and pain make the world a livable place. He said, poverty is necessary, but not deprivation! When he shared about Gary Kasparov’s defeat from Deep Blue, and how he had said, “Today Quantity has defeated Quality”. It is the brute force computing power is defeating the intelligence of human aesthetics.

@Prakash reflected the difference between a @robot_mother, @robot_partner and the @human counterparts of them. A robot always pleases. It never brings into those deeper nuanced layers of @bhava, @rasa and @dwani. He recollected @Shatavdhani_Ganesh and his take on aesthetics.
Interestingly I had attended a session by @Shatavdhani_Ganesh on aesthetics and creativity in 2016 at @National_Institute_of_Advanced_Studies at @IISc - NIAS Consciousness Programme. I shared with him my experience of that session, how I was in tears after Shatavdhani Ganesh completed his speech. He told how that is the art of a true artist, when they are able to uplift an individual @bhava to a higher plane of universal @rasa and @aesthetics.
I remember having shared this video with @Anjan_Da, and he was so moved by the talk of @Shatavdhani_Ganesh that he wrote couple of poems on that! It was beautiful.

Coming back to the @AI-friend which a big for-profit company would make, would have the agenda of making ourselves consumers of the product, and pay for the services, rather than have someone who is @non-transactional! @Prakash recollected that the most beautiful aspect of @India is that its ethos still lies in the fundamental @non-transactional nature of its social fabric. In most part of India, in the remote villages and small towns, even now people are typically @non-transactional. There is no hidden agenda of making profit out of one’s interactions and relationships. It is merely out of @love, @care and @concern for the other person. It is named as @karuna (compassion) in Sanskrit. It is a great coincidence again that @Kailash_Sathyarthi the Novel Laureate from India, have written a book on this name, and that is getting released on Jan 30th, 2026. He re-affirms this message of @Prakash in his book, and also introduces Karuna Quotient (Compassion Quotient CQ) to measure and work on building the compassion in the self and organizations.

On art, @Prakash says that we love art because we want to be understood. Art if a medium in which we express who we are. And that blossoms in the eyes of the other. And that builds a soul to soul connection. On success he reflected why success has to be such that it is better than others. Why cannot it be a better version of our previous self. That way we are not competing but collaborating. By building a big house and high walls, and letting the world out of our safe bolted armory, are we not imprisoning ourselves? is it that we are imprisoning ourselves in our own ego, fear and insecurities? That path that West took since the inception of the concept of private property and individualism, has led to this alienation and loneliness. This idea was exquisitely put forth by @Erich_Fromm in his books - “Man for Himself” and “Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”.

@Prakash reminded us that intrinsically, Tech is @value_free! We load values into the technology. And that is where we need to be careful. Tech is a tool. It is a means. Not an end. Keeping the humanism, ecology, compassion, care, and love in the center, and building technology around that is the need of the hour.
He also hinted on @Karma_yoga / @Purushartha - it is what we do that defines our identity and that gives us the sense of completeness. Not anything else. Perhaps who we are is a @verb and not a @noun. Answering to a question from audience on @woman_rights, he reflected, and pondered, asking, “can we expand the vision of woman rights to @justice?”. Justice for humanity, for ecology, for all beings and non-beings!

He ended his talk challenging the audience to practice larger @sacrifice and to @Be_a_Hero!
In his book - “Essays on Gita”, @Sri_Aurobindo brings forth this idea of @sacrifice as the highest form of @love and the essence of @Gita.

@Prakash_Belwadi was mentioning that @success typically is when you do better than your surroundings. Then he asked, why something has to be better than others. Why cannot it be a better version of our previous self. And when that happens, we are not competing but collaborating. (Something Adler always reiterated in his writings).

Madhumita Bhaskar

The talk by @Madhumita_Bhaskar was also totally in another level as well! She was talking of @frame and @freedom. @frame was not a cage or a boundary. But it was the netted support for the wild creative vine to grow, thrive and flourish. It was amazing the way she put the whole talk. And her slides were mind blowingly simmple and beautiful. She was talking about how @Purpose, @consistency, @hardwork create that frame, and then that works as a light house that keeps us and supports us when things become stormy. I asked her how we can know what is our purpose. She said it is by consistent practice of who we are and doing that again and again. It is about identifying what I feel the best while expressing myself, and consistently doing that and improvising on that, something in long term, slowly slowly becomes clearer and we see our purpose emerge! That was beautifully articulated.
I reflected that it is in writing I find myself, and perhaps that idea of practicing @compassion, creating @beauty, solving @problems, and being a better @software_engineer is defined as a purpose for me, as I continue to learn, continue to experiment and continue to explore being who I am at @work, in @love, in @life. I am reminded of @Alfred_Adler and his ideas on @life-tasks.

Dr. Nisha Khanna

@Dr.Neha_Khanna who is a famous celebrity psychologist from Delhi. She spoke about identity, self discrepancy, cognitive dissonance and how to reclaim our true self in the soup of social media. Her talk was pretty detailed and showed several scientific frameworks and studies.

Manan Pahwa

@Mannan_Pahwa spoke on design in the digital world. how he works to create that vibe, that environment that enables people to better navigate through the digital maze. He shared several enlightening ideas on standing up and using the technology towards blossoming rather than dooming.
He was speaking about the idea of @blossom_scrolling instead of @doom_scrolling. @blossom_Scrolling is how we move from one concept to another, that triggers a higher order thinking in us, creating new nerve connections, and seeing the world differently. I shared with him my experience with the research paper @Barath wrote as @MetaPrompt. I shared with them, that when I had attended the @google_fest, i saw a google engineer sharing the sql pipe functionality that was transforming the non-liner sql block of queries into a linear flow using “|>” symbol. It was blossom scrolling across multiple spaces and times! And how beautifully and exquisitely @Bharath had captured that essence in the research paper.

Anup Gupta

Anup Gupta in his very authentic and simplistic style shared the central theme as playing by one’s own strengths. It is about being authentic to oneself. He shared his life journey, and how he did not get deterred by the mishaps during his JEE exam day, and as his uncle had said, if Tendulkar goes out, will Indian team stop playing? He had lots of passion in cricket, and so he was able to pull up all his spirits and play his best for the exam.
He asked some thought provoking questions to the audience, and made us think and jolt us from the inertia of our habitual thinking patterns of - An imaginary destination, that is not reached yet. Rather he was stressing on living life point to point, whole and complete and giving each moment its full due. He explained an example where in his company he does not chase a large big target, rather he has daily realistic targets that his team works towards and rejoiced at it.
He was also mentioning about delayed gratification. How he would give himself a target to complete some topics in studies. And if he would have completed it, then he would go for a movie. And how that movie would become extra pleasurable as he was earning it as a reward of his hard work! I was able to relate to this to the work of @Chikzentmihalyi on @flow_state. How when we are in flow, we are able to derive immense pleasure from the work itself. And that becomes a reward in itself. And more importantly the ability to see intermediate results of the hard work, which fuels us to go further.

The goodies

Overall the day was just awesome! Food was great and they gave high tea as well. Also they gifted on water bottle, pen and a notebook. It was a great experience.