Hi, I’m Abhinav! I hail from New Delhi, India and have a graduate degree in Computer Science. I currently reside in the United States and work as a Software Engineer for a mid sized (software) networking company.
Now, as an ‘Indian’ working in the ‘United States’ as a ‘Software Engineer’, and in an attempt to convince myself that I’m not a complete stereotype, I make a conscious effort in not neglecting my interests in the non-engineering domain, one of them being world affairs. I am an avid reader and keep myself abreast of topical issues pertaining to, but not limited to the politics of my beloved motherland India, the United States, the effects of migration on Europe, the menace of global terrorism and how it’s dealt with by politicians based on their biased agendas, etc. In addition to the aforementioned issues, I’m extremely interested in events that have shaped our modern day societies, like the Civil War in the United States, India’s own wars with Pakistan and China and the Bluestar Operation, racism, religion, how our societies evolved from being largely polyamorous to becoming mostly monogamous and gender issues to name a few.
Apart from reading articles online, I’ve experienced that travelling solo to virgin territories is another great way to expand one’s horizons. To that effect, I make it a point to head out to new places whenever I can. As part of these travels, I’ve had the opportunity to interact at length with people from different walks of life, from religious fanatics to those who’ve been on the wrong side of law (more like ex-drug peddlers and hitmen) to severely depressed Broadway actresses to army officers, all with an intent to better understand how people go about their lives, the maladies in our society and so on.
Personality wise, Myers-Briggs categorizes me as an INTJ. It roughly translates into my having a no non-sense attitude towards issues I feel strongly about and a belief in taking tangible action rather than indulging in vapid small talk. For instance, during the 2014 general elections in India, I saw many of my fellow non-resident Indians express helplessness at their inability to vote by virtue of them being outside the country. As a result, they resorted to signing online petitions, asking the Government of India to grant them permission to caste their vote at the Indian consulates in their respective countries. As for me, I simply purchased an airline ticket, flew back home for a week and exercised my franchise. The incumbents had to be shown the door for the decade long havoc they subjected the country to, and signing these online petitions simply wouldn’t have cut it.
The same forthrightness will be reflected in my articles, meaning they’ll be to the point, devoid of sugarcoating facts and free of any attempt to pacify the beings/communities being spoken about in the said articles.
ABOUT ‘VOICE, SANS NOISE‘
‘Voice, Sans Noise‘, as the name suggests, attempts to voice an opinion on the happenings around me, minus the noise that usually accompanies the said happenings. This noise can take any form: maintaining political correctness over the motives behind terror attacks, seeing events like the Oscars from racism-tinted glasses, discriminating against the well-to-dos while voicing opposition when subjected to the same behavior, so on and so forth. Through ‘Voice, Sans Noise‘, my aim will be to eliminate this noise from my writing and present a view on the events bereft of unnecessary details and niceties.
Having had the privilege to live in the world’s largest democracy, India, and the world’s oldest democracy, the United States, it’s interesting to observe the parallels between the two societies. The ‘majoritarian guilt’ that the left subjects its citizens to and the divisive politics at play during election time in the two countries, either by virtue of people’s religion in India or their skin color in the United States, or beating around the bush over topics like terrorism for that matter, the similarities are hard to ignore. So are the contrastive nature of the two societies, mostly in terms of people’s priorities and their attitude towards life. Needless to say, I’ll never be short on analogies and examples to make a point.
A detailed description of the various categories under which I plan to divide my articles can be found here. This will be an ever evolving section and will be updated either when new sections are added to the website or if I decide to modify the description of an already existing one.
I’d like to clarify one thing here: This website is a repository of MY thoughts and opinions. I enjoy writing and choose subjects to write on based on how much noise I’m hearing on a given topic and have the urge to voice an opinion on the said topic. This is not a news website, so I’m not required to cover everything in my articles. More importantly, I’m not required to justify writing on a given topic by first covering all other associated topics. For instance, when I’m writing on Islamic terror, my focus will solely be on Islam and its relationship with terrorism, and that’s about it! I need not discuss Christian crusades from the earlier centuries, the violent face of Buddhism in Myanmar and atrocities committed in the name of other religions elsewhere in the world in order to justify writing on Islamic terror, especially in the light of my being a non-Muslim. It just means that I didn’t consider mentioning other faiths pertinent to the topic being discussed and hence ignored them. Moreover, deviating from a given topic will be tantamount to introducing noise, something that will go against the entire ethos of this website.
Layout
In keeping in line with the thought behind starting ‘Voice, Sans Noise‘, the design of the website has been kept really simple, such that it appears uncluttered, ‘fresh’ and most importantly, easy to navigate. The front page will list articles in a chronological order as and when they are posted, akin to feed on a timeline. Category-wise distribution of these articles can be found by clicking on the respective category, visible on hovering the mouse over ‘CONTENT’.
Lastly, comments and suggestions are always welcome. I read and interpret topics in a certain way and might falter in grasping the exact intent. I look forward to your constructive input in this regard in order to broaden my own understanding of issues being talked about. Moreover, in case you come across any interesting book(s) and/or online article(s) related to the topics I’ve mentioned here, do drop me a link to the same.
