The Ranger

A new home, he feels. No he doesn't. It is a shelter, as in an inn, for the tired and thirsty traveler. He is hungry and penniless. The lord of the house could have thrown him out. And he did. He could have ended up on the pavements, frigid. And he did. Until a beggar (or was he a leper) took him in. A tent, warm enough to keep his soul and body intact. The night passed, morning came and the traveler left. He took some money for the road. Tonight he found a shelter, another inn, which is this. He ate and bade good night. In bed, he drew his cross and the crescent. To-morrow he leaves.

Gap Year Gibberish

Delhi lies quiet in front of me. The sun is setting. The sky looks a pale orange. Time is creeping at snail's pace. Chaos has receded. Everything is static.

I see a bunch of ladies offer their prayers. A baby girl sits and play innocently on her mom's lap. Across the balcony the ten year old son of my neighbour smiles at me. It is the first time he has done so. The traffic on the road is keeping the decibels at the usual. Nothing to worry, since. Every bit remains normal. An ordinary chapter read the way it is. Pattern holds. It is still.

I wish I lived in a cabin in the woods

I live in a cabin in the woods. My cabin sits atop a mound. I drink a cup of coffee every morning. Every sip syncs perfectly with my mood. The china is white, spotless and beautiful. I am standing in the hall, looking at the door. On either sides of the door, there are windows. The panes are divided into four; the cross shaped wooden panel runs in the middle. Immediately outside, the scene is green. I love that colour. It is natural, soothing and comforting. 

Every morning, after my breakfast, I take out my jacket and step out for a walk. And stroll down the small hill and forest. I never grew tired of the jungle. Everyday I noticed something new, listened to new chirps. My heart is at peace from within. Yes, I am at peace. I am content; my heart feels lighter. Adrian Ziegler's is playing. But now I have to sleep. Eyelids are shutting.

Goodnight-Sweet Dreams!

The Curious Case of Golden Ass

During the book festival at Venky, my college, I had bought five books at Rs.50/- per piece. I have completed two of them. The first one I completed was The Lady In Blue by Javier Sierra. A paranormal thriller, it gave me couple of sleepless nights. About three days back I started with Cupid and Psyche, one in those five grabs I had made. It is the smallest book of all, running to a mere ninety-one pages. The book contains chapters drawn from an old Latin novel, The Golden Ass by Apuleius. It's publication date is supposed to be around second century A.D. The first story given was that of Cupid and Psyche. A simple and interesting narrative.

The modern edition I read had been printed by Penguin Epics. The publishers had also bothered to include couple of more chapters or Books from the novel. It talks about a man named Lucius and his journey guided by Curiosity. One aspect of the narrative that caught my attention was the language in which it is written. Translated from Latin, the English language has done as much justice as possible to the story, I hope. Secondly, the story itself is quite amusing. Since the book doesn't have the novel in it's entirety and I am so eager to complete the story, I recently checked Flipkart. The copy published by OUP under Oxford Classics comes for Rs.245/-. Not bad yet could have been cheaper.

So, the moral of my story is Curiosity is indeed an evil master. The protagonist in the novel is so desperate to learn magic. And I am so curious to get my hands on the unabridged edition, so that I could complete the novel. Sitting in my room in the twenty-first century I can readily empathise with Lucius of second-century. Curiosity is indeed a driving force, probably the intellectual parallel of physical motivation. The curious mind takes leaps and bounds in understanding. The restless heart creates horizons so far and wide that you couldn't even have dreamed about it. At times it lands you in trouble too. Well, then, as they say, No Pain, No Gain. Couch-potatoes turn heroes as they explore the endless possibilities their mental faculties offer. Even in troubled circumstances the curious mind learns; it understands the reason for his being in the trouble, it's nature and at the end, the solution. It is where the curious mind evolves and matures to become wise and astucious. The curious mind works with a motivated body to survive. As they work in tandem, it is just a matter of time before deliverance arrives. Help yourself. Thus, I can understand what Lucius was up to in his strange wanting to learn magical arts and his willingness to take on that extra mile. Consequences, whatever they may be, have to be faced. The vitality, motivated and curious never let you down. So, my dear brother Lucius, you never walk alone in the path of unexplored!

The Beautiful Mathematics- Fermat's Last Theorem and Philosophy of History

I was watching one of the episodes of BBC Horizon series. The first one I intended to watch was "Did Darwin Get it Wrong?'. Unfortunately the codec didn't work and the video crashed. I went back to Swaroop's hard disk, from which I had sourced the series. The video is crashed in there as well. I panicked a bit. What if all videos are malfunctioning ones? It took me more than an hour yesterday night to transfer the series to my laptop. It costed me the entire seasons of Psych, Breaking Bad, Two and a Half Men and How I Met your Mother. The latter two are at least saved in Swaroop's hard disk. Even his one terabyte capable portable was running low on space. Thus sacrificing some avoidable stuff became unavoidable.

Pierre de Fermat

Coming back to the series, I settled down to watch the episode on Fermat's Last Theorem. Pierre de Fermat, the 17th century French mathematician, had proved in his theorem that the Pythagorean Theorem wouldn't work for any other whole number exponent but the number two. The Pythagorean Theorem being a^2+b^2= c^2. Or in words, in a right angled triangle, the area of the square of the hypotenuse is equal to to the sum of the square of area of other two sides. What Fermat dared in 17th century was to prove that no other whole number exponent can give you the same results. For instance, a^3+b^3<> c^3 and so on. Now the problem was that over time Fermat's Last Theorem was lost and subsequent mathematicians couldn't reproduce or reprove the conjecture, not even Carl.F.Gauss! The problem continued to the 20th century. Even with the help of modern super computers, the conjecture couldn't be proved. Why? Because simply there are infinite number of numbers which exist. Thus even if we had computed the formula a billion times using a billion number of different whole number exponents, the theoretical possibility of that one number which can topple the formula existed. The mathematicians needed proof, a well thought-out, detailed mathematical theorem which proves the conjecture. In 1993, the British mathematician Andrew Wiles came out with the theorem which proved Fermat's last Theorem after a long and arduous research spanning over seven years. The entire mathematical community was ecstatic. One of the greatest puzzles in the world of numbers finally succumbed to human genius. Or did it? Soon Mr. Wiles's friend who had been given the task of checking the theorem for consistency, emailed Mr. Wiles of the glaring gap he found in the theorem. Andrew Wiles saw for the first time the mistake he had mistakenly overlooked. The error could well hit the death-nail upon his seven-year long work. The fault had put the entire proof at the risk of being unproven. As they say, fortune favours the brave. In 1994, Mr. Wiles found out that the very mistake he had encountered could unlock the possibility of fixing the proof. Finally on a fine day, Andrew Wiles, the man who dedicated seven years of his life to the theorem and worked so single minded on the pursuit of truth, found it. Awesome, isn't it? As he puts it, "I had this revelation...I found it." Thus was put to rest the Fermat's Last Theorem, one of the greatest intellectual challenges dawned upon humanity.

Prof. Andrew Wiles

Here, well. starts my story. I had always been a poor student of Mathematics. There was a period in my life when I hated the subject. I loathed the discipline as my maths teachers ran out patience with this stupid, good-for-nothing fellow. Very late or not until recently have I started admiring the subject. My admiration to mathematics stems from my interest in physics or more precisely, particle physics. Along with fellow physics enthusiasts or fans, I am too waiting eagerly for that day when a Unified Field Theorem would be constructed. The day when the string theorists are able to reconcile quantum mechanics with gravity. To put it poetically, the day in heaven when Albert Einstein shall shake hands with Max Planck. Owing to my personal mathematical ignorance, string theory or M-Theory principles have appealed more to the subjective and philosophical side of my personality than the objective and scientific rationale.

Prof. Max Tegmark

One of the interesting philosophical principles deductible from string theory is, as Prof. Max Tegmark from MIT enlightened the audience, at sub-atomic quantum levels, mathematics becomes the language of nature! Think about it, the universe itself could be nothing but a mathematical super-structure. If it could be true, the nature is not simply speaking to us in mathematics, the nature itself is Mathematics. At quantum levels the particles cannot be seen. The existence of such tiny particles are deduced from experimental observation which shows mathematical consistency. From the tiniest of the proposed strings and quantum particles to super black holes and gamma ray bursts, for some or other reason must exhibit mathematical regularity. It simply shows, as Prof. Max says, Mathematics is not a subject invented by humans but the very building block of the universe. As a student of History we are told to keep an open-mind. We should be open to any idea that comes in our way, however blasphemous it sounds. At the end of the day what we strive to achieve is the greater understanding of the society we live in. Thus the search for objectivity is not a historian's cup of tea, I feel. This constitutes the greatest philosophical division among Science and Social Studies. The search for the Truth, existing and verifiable, by Science is unknown to modern Social Studies. I don't believe the realm of Social Studies have to go after such Truth or such a Truth even exists. But such a rule applies only for Social Studies not for Science. The brain child of Enlightened idea of liberty settles for nothing but the Truth. So be it. While as the Science searches for objective Truth, we Historians and allied Social students shall further our understanding of the nature of such a verifiable and objective Truth, however subjective our interpretations may turn out to be. We are two sides of same coin. The question is but what is the coin?

The mathematics, thus holds the key for the greater understanding of the state of nature, whatever it is. The implications of this idea are far-reaching, even for Social students. The beautiful subject of mathematics can do wonder in our quest for greater excellence in all fields. Maybe we will construct languages of better mathematical consistency which will allow us to communicate our thoughts better. The closed-semantics of many a language including English at times inhibit dissemination of thoughts in their entirety. Unless you are so proficient in the language, mathematics-isation of languages would offer democratization of linguistics on an unprecedented scale. Those who had read Orwell's 1984 and familiar with Newspeak would understand the need for open-semantics in languages better. The computer codes, binary digits and quantum computing are all nothing but significant steps towards such a direction. Such a mathematics-oriented efforts can also do wonders in post-human philosophy, trying to create genetically engineered, superior human beings in a phenomenon that could rightly be labelled as evolution accelerated. The beauty of the subject is that the universe converses in mathematics. But is human-mathematics enough to capture the mystery of the universe in it's full measure? The numbers and characters, which visualizes mathematics to intelligent life, are representations of the principle which has gone in to the making of the universe. If we could push the horizons of human imaginations further, we may be able to come out with a form of 'Higher Mathematics', an improved version of mathematics which is better suited to understand the principle of universe and make our computations easier. It requires help from bio-technology, synthesizing intelligence of greater appeal. Everything demands a multi-disciplinary approach. This is just but one step. The evolution of both mathematics and human imagination have to go miles in evolution before we can feel safe about unlocking nature's secret. In Is Universe a Virtual Simulation? Really?, I had discussed about the research going into unveil whether the entire universe in which we belong is nothing but a PC simulation, run by human beings from future. Sounds like sci-fi, eh? Understanding Mathematics from both a conceptual and practical level again can help us decode our genetic programming, however virtual we are. I have also started encouraging in my mind this weird idea of a possible integration of some sections of Mathematics such as topology with Historiography so as to graph and visualise our world, scanning it across multi-dimensional time. Who knows, such an approach could help us discover attributes and properties of different systems we most commonly bypass in our analysis. And, we can stumble upon that coin, which seems to hold every sides. Thus, Mathematics is that infinitely beautiful subject which offers countless possibilities of reality, stretching our imaginations along with it to unprecedented scale. And that subject whose problems I can't solve for life, in this lifetime.

On a personal note, the story of Prof. Andrew Wiles is encouraging. A reminder of more intellectual nature yet motivating in it's appeal on par with the best of 'follow-your-dreams' kind of stories. In future, I too hope to answer some of the most nagging doubts constantly pricking my understanding about History, it's philosophy and it's motive force, if any. Meantime every generation must also pose problems of unsolvable nature to their successors to keep them busy in pursuit of knowledge. I, too, shall question.

What do picnics mean?

So, what does the three-day trip to Jim Corbett mean to me? A much needed break from Delhi it was. Three days and nights of friends and fun tend to have it's implications on your philosophy as well. Basically it proves the real life is sad and evil ridden at it's extreme. Thus, these kind of picnics and holidays prove to be an escape. Or in other words living a fiction. Novels, films etc. are forms of intellectual escapes from the miseries of real world into a make-believe world, aren't they? Vacations let you indulge not only your intellect but also your body in fantasy. The veil of reality is too tempting to overcome. Yet, some does. Had it not been for such breaks, for sure, humanity would have turned complete insane long back! For those who overcome the veil, it is a bitter acceptance of state of nature. Then, there are others whose hope is rekindled. And maybe there are zillion other categories or none. In what do I belong?

Jim Corbett Diaries- II

And thus started our second day at Ramnagar. The itinerary outlined visits to a local waterfall and a temple. As usual day the day took off with bread, egg, TT and badminton. My TT skills were definitely improving. Add to that Vishrut's, a fresher, tutoring on the game. He could spin the ball and make it land where he intend to on the table. The table was damaged and thus not suited to play proper TT, he opined. He was right. Even a dinner table would have made a better playing surface than the table on which we were playing. I started off with playing ping-pong sort of TT. As we played further, our game skills were progressively improving. Or we could hit the ball fast and yet make it land it inside the table. Brownie points! The badminton court was a different story altogether. To my surprise, I was good at it! I hadn't played the game for a log while. I expected to fare badly. It was not to be. Actually my badminton skills had improved from the last time. Kartik and I beat almost every other team. I must say, Kartik is the better player. The most pathetic one out there was Uday. Despite his height of 6'4" and lanky frame, he couldn't touch the shuttlecock. His above-ordinary height has bestowed upon him the luck to make contact with these high flying projectiles without much ado. Yet, he won't or he can't! Anyway, by 10 o'clock we left for the waterfalls in a bus.

At the waterfalls

The waterfalls was big time fun. Although we had to walk inside the jungle for quite a while to find it. Couple of days of trekking and constant playing had started to show on my calf muscles. Yet nothing could stop me. Simply none of us had the time to reflect on any tiredness. Everyone is moving and there is no time to lag behind. Thankfully our timing was near-perfect. There weren't any outsiders. Thus we owned the waterfalls, nearby woods and fun for the next one hour. Photographers, as usual, were busy capturing waterfalls, greenery and poses. I started stone-skipping, my favourite water sports! I am not bad at it, you know. Later took a small shower in the falls before settling down on a nearby rock. My foot was aching, thanks to walking on rocks barefooted. Nikita and Uday joined me and soon we were talking about books, I guess. After a while, others too had grown tired and came together for another group photo. Other tourists had started coming, mostly college students. The place was getting increasingly crowded. In another ten minutes or so we had started making our walk back to the bus. The resort was another thirty minutes away.

(from right) Uday, Nikita and I- from the waterfalls

Post lunch, boys were back on the field playing badminton and cricket. It was fun. And I can't bat for my life! Aroon, on the other hand is a good batsman and bowler. Kartik's technique is also admirable. Anil is good in Carrom. As I said before, we had another event featuring in the itinerary. We had to visit Garija temple, situated atop mountains. Thanks to the general irreligion prevailing among us, mostly none of us wanted to go. Pratyush&co. bunked it feigning ill-health. I decided to give it a shot. After all, a trip which costed me Rs. 4000/- had to be taken maximum advantage of. The bus trip lasted almost for an hour. I didn't talk much during the ride. I was enjoying the scenic beauty of Ramnagar, as we traveled further inside the village and upwards towards the temple. The roadside view was kind of nostalgic. It reminded me of sights I had come across during my trips to Kanyakumari, my father's place. Finally we reached the temple.

Rakesh, Kartik, I and Uday- on the banks of R. Kosi

Kartik, Uday and I decided to spend our time at River Kosi, which was flowing at a considerable might. Rakesh and Anil joined us in a while. Although I had a digital camera, I didn't make use of it. The entire atmosphere during the trip was so ecstatic, I felt like living the moment than capturing it. At Kosi, Kartik's and Rakesh's phones did the trick for me, though. We played in the river, skipped stones and even tried to determine who can throw the stone the farthest. Uday won, beating Anil, finally! Uday and I ventured quite further into the river. At every step we were careful not to slip on the slippery rocks and stones. The flow of river was quite strong and violent. Had we slipped and fallen, chances of rescue would be dim. Anil had the prasad or temple offerings. He kept it inside my bag. We had spent around an hour and half at the temple before we left. We bought pakoras and snacks on our way back. Vikas bought pizza from a nearby pizza point and Aastha was trying to find a workable ATM to withdraw money to meet the trip's expenses. The entire bus was dancing to Yo Yo Honey Singh's latest number, Break Up Party. It is Uday's birthday by the way. Celebrations were  just starting. Wait till the nightfall.

Uday and I- revel it the way you want!

At night, bonfire was made. It required a lot of effort keep fire burning. We gathered woods and kept feeding the bonfire. I must admit Vikas has a special skill in blowing the ember into life. Let's admit, people were high. That added to the spirit! Uday's birthday cake was cut and everybody sang 'Happy Birthday.' Party songs enthralled the mood and everyone danced. In no time, dancing turned into rain dance. My name was conspicuously missing, though. Simply because I am paranoid about getting sick and I didn't want to invite pneumonia needlessly. Chirag made the plunge into the pool and buddies followed. Again I remained dry, literally. I guess the fun went a bit overboard. Otherwise it wouldn't have woken up Jaya ma'm from sleep. The earlier false alarm just went wrong, ironically. She caught us all red handed. It wasn't scary, but disturbing to upset her that way. She told others to come out of the pool and instructed us to go to bed immediately. We obeyed. The time was around 12 o'clock at night. The night didn't end there, though. We all gathered around in rooms and had fun, cracking jokes and gossiping. Finally we called it a day at 3 o'clock in the morning. Good night.

The third and final day at Ramagar was starting. We were supposed to leave for railway station at night. Our checkout time was around 12 o'clock at noon. We gave back all but three rooms, where we kept our luggage ready. Nothing was on the itinerary for the final day as we had exhausted ourselves of all activities on the first couple of days itself. A quiet and lazy day, it was. We all met at the pool. This time, I decided to take the plunge with everybody. In the pool, the water was biting. We had to acclimatize ourselves to the temperature before any fun could start. Initially we played catch and catch with balls. It is impossible to make diving catches in pools, I learned. It is even harder if you can't swim! Later the game evolved into human tug of war, God knows how! Still, it too was fun, pulling the unsuspecting from both sides. Vatsala captained our side. We were quite good too. We pulled it off! After what looked like an eternity of fun inside the pool, we made ground. I ran for a quick shower and changed dress. 

Tug of War- Anil caught in the middle

Tug of War- Vatsala leading the charge

Kartik, Uday, Vatsala and Aastha opted for sun-bathing, drying up themselves in the process. I joined them shortly. Aastha and Vatsala were talking about the fun we were going to miss once back in Delhi. Aastha complained about withdrawal symptoms. Actually she was right. Too much fun to be left behind. We played cricket and badminton for a while before the lunch. By afternoon we were all tired and could feel the three-day long fun trip coming to it's inevitable end. I went to Pratyush&co.'s place for a nap and Kartik, Uday and Vatsala joined us. Some TV, chit-chats about films and actors and a lot of chips summarize the evening. At night around 8:30, we left the resort for the railway station. Our train was scheduled to leave for Delhi at 9:50 p.m. We comfortably made the distance, waiting for almost forty-five minutes for the train. The train arrived on time and we boarded. The last leg of our trip had begun. I was already missing the fun but wasn't ready to waste the night-time train travel with friends sulking. For some weird reason, what Abhinav to Prtayush to Chirag to Vatsala could talk about was ghosts. Pratyush went on and on about the supernatural experiences he encountered during his school days. Abhinav, Chirag and Aastha also chipped in with their bit. I am very neutral on such matters. they may or may not exist. I don't care. By midnight we were all sleepy and went to our berths. At 4 o'clock in the morning the train reached Delhi and we all deboarded. My father was waiting for me outside the Old Delhi railway station. I said goodbyes to friends and an awesome trip!

Rakesh, Uday, Kartik and I- the fun never ends

Jim Corbett Diaries- I

I had just reached Jim Corbett or Ramnagar railway station, to be exact. We, the touring History association of Sri Venkateswara College, were made to wait for a good twenty minutes before our resort's transport service picked us up. The time was around 4:30 a.m. in the morning. The journey from the station to resort took another thirty minutes. I enjoyed the ride, partly cutting through the jungle as tigers slept, so did the twenty odd friends of mine. Once at the resort, we were all busy unloading. The resort was pleasing in it's appearance. While checking out the surroundings, it happened to look up at the night sky. Uday followed my gaze. The sky was illuminated with infinite stars gleaming the cosmic radiance at us, the lowly mortals, I felt. There is nothing more welcoming than a night sky full of shining stars, I shared my thought with Uday. He nodded in assent. Kartik, Uday and I put up in a single room. Sleep had dawned on us, the dusk had set. More than six hours of train journey at night with friends practically mean little sleep. We said our good nights.

(from right) Rakesh, Abhinav, Kartik, I, Vatsala and Aastha- from the train ride

Room delivery served us tea around nine o'clock. Boys had slept barely for three hours and the day was already starting. There was no stopping Aastha and Vatsala. Aastha was like "Guys, we have only three days in front of us. Do you intend to sleep it off?" The kind of child-like yet contagious enthusiasm was the hallmark of the entire trip. It kept the fun alive.

The entire History tour group

The breakfast was good. A good day to begin. The first on the list was trekking. Sounds fun, eh? We checked with the guide regarding the possible duration of the trekking. He gave us an estimation of thirty minutes. As it turned out to be the longest thirty minutes of my life. First of all, it didn't look like trekking at all. As I climbed the treacherous steps, I kept looking back. The image that came to me was that of a fleeing army, lost and stripped of honour, seeking refuge in some mountain hideout. It is just me. As we trekked our own Mt. Doom, the climb became steeper and murmurs of discontent had risen. Mutiny, my imagination called aloud. Everyone was already feeling tired. Understandable for the urban-pampered cry-babies. Still, the fun was too much to leave it midway. Without turning back, we marched ahead to the tunes of chit-chats. We rested at many spots, photographers didn't seem to have missed a single frame, as the number of Facebook pictures stand testimony to my claim. Some of us lagged behind, playfully enjoying streams and even termite and ant hills. Whatever said and done, once at the pinnacle, the view was breathtakingly awesome. The quaint village of Ramnagar laid in front of us in a panoramic view. Green and lush, wow! The climb was worth it and no one could agree more. As a rule of margin, all things go downhill. The trek is no exception. Our descend was cautious since the step were steep. Yet, thank goodness, we reached safely back. Although Jaya Ma'm vented her fury at the guide for having taken an arduous path, Uday and I later thanked the guide-bhayya for the challenging trek. As Uday says at times, "It's not the destiny; it's all about the journey."

Vatsala and Aastha; the trail follows- during the trekking

We had a great lunch, as the food was generally good throughout the trip. Shortly after the lunch, I stumbled upon the Table Tennis table at the reception. Something of a time-filler for the next three days, the discovery turned out to be. In no time, Kartik was standing at the side, waiting for his turn, as I played against Uday. Such is life, as we played our hearts out, the call for afternoon jungle safari came running in. Earlier we had tried to postpone the safari as we all were kind of tired from trekking that morning. Alas, the jeeps had already come and had to be paid at cancellation too. Thus we took the bet. Our rides were in five open roof Gypsy vans. We were cruising along the roads of Ramnagar. The feel of wind blowing at you, as the Gypsy sped at a speed close to 80 kmph, is wonderful. As a matter of fact Uday feels it should be on everybody's bucket of 'to-do' list before you die. Soon we reached Jim Corbett National Park, in heightened expectations of spotting a tiger. Indeed we spotted, a dozen of monkeys and countless dogs and a handful of sambhals. To our disappointment, we learned the hard way that no one expects you to spot tigers at the fringes of the jungle. Anyway, the ride through the forest was awesome to say the least. One freakish thing that happened during our safari was the breakdown of a Gypsy in which the first years were travelling and everyone stopped. Isn't it sort of scary to be stuck inside a jungle, famed for it's man-eater predators? Well, Rakesh and I took a stroll down the woods, not long before he directed my attention towards a footprint. Apparently a pug mark, he claimed. So much hullabaloo for a pug mark. We all left the scene a little later, halting at a Maggi point inside the jungle before exiting the national park. The Hindi party songs gave us the verve to groove on our way back to resort. At resort, shortly after our dinner, we celebrated Uday's birthday. The boy turned 20 as the clock struck twelve o'clock. All credit goes to Aastha for pulling off a memorable birthday eve. And guys too were ecstatic too. Salute the spirit, literally!

Aastha, Uday, Kartik and I- from the Gypsy ride

Going to Jim Corbett tonight

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Leaving for Jim Corbett National Park tonight. Still gotta take a shower and thank God the packing is done, almost. The train leaves at 10:45 p.m. Aastha has been looking forward to the trip for a pretty long time. And after passing much hurdles, which are comparable to agnipariksha, the platform lies waiting. More than twenty people from the History Association are going including Uday, Kartik and Vatsala. I am hoping for a worthy break from home. A good four days with friends and tigers in the middle of a jungle. Well, what else to say but bon voyage, to ourselves. Stay safe, mate. 

The Flower of Sweet Strabane by Paddy Reilly and Celt Music

The Flower of Sweet Strabane is playing in the background. Or has been playing in the background for the last two days. Music is an inconsequential part of my life. I don't follow any bands or any musician in particular. Let myself not be consumed the pride of indifference to music. It's just me. Such a character doesn't imply I don't listen to songs, obviously I have my picks. You know, it just happens to stumble upon some works and start loving it. I have a liking for Celt music, some of them. Especially those kind which soothes the soul. I first listened to The Flower of Sweet Strabane around two years back. There weren't any lyrics; a simple, captivating and calm instrumental. One of those rare songs to which I have an extreme tolerance, as in doesn't become a bore after a while. Any day at any time I can plug in my headphones and start indulging my spirit in the song, an exceptional one. During one of my Google searches, the keyword The Flower of Sweet Strabane lyrics caught my attention, as there were no lyrics in the instrumental I used to listen. Few days back I checked on the details of the song. I came to know that it is sung by an Irish singer named Paddy Reilly who used to work with an Irish folk band called The Dubliners. The song is lovely and lyrics exude romance from within. I downloaded the song and started listening before uploading to my YouTube channel. The instrumental rendition still remains as one of my all-time-favourites; the list welcomes the new entrant, The Flower of Sweet Strabane by Paddy Reilly. Reach the lyrics-less but magical rendition here.

I am also sharing couple more of personal all-time favourite Celt songs:

• The Celtic Circle- Mystic's Dream and
• The Celtic Circle- Skellig by Loreena McKennit.

Game of Thrones- A Theoretical Perspective re-blogged

On Facebook, Abeer had shared a link, captioned 'worth a read'. The link was titled as Game of Thrones as Theory, on Foreign Affairs journal online. I haven't seen or read Game of Thrones. Uday is a big fan of these books. Although I haven't watched it completely, my TV shows folder contains the first and second season of the series. I guess Swaroop had given me the e-book version of A Song of Ice and Fire, not sure. I possess a basic understanding of the theme of Game of Thrones, thanks to the above mentioned sources. Moreover, understanding Game of Thrones from a theoretical perspective of International Relations is quite an exciting experience. Everybody knows the story is about the race for power, ruthless strategies, action, sexual debauchery, gender conflict and what not. In a nutshell the chaotic world of ours is replicated elsewhere pushed way back in time, only to further the excesses. As it seems, the series is an example of Realpolitik. A fictional ghetto where might summons the right. It is a non-apologetic verbal and graphic description of domestic and foreign politics. As it has always dawned upon humanity, idealism remains the mirage of naive. The article, though, takes a different position. Charli Carpenter depicts Game of Thrones as a process-cum-consequence of realpolitik than a mere process in which realpolitik unravels itself. The chaos, violence and debauchery do not make up unbridled power but are results of immoral politics. Sheer disregard for norms and judgments of common moral convictions bring about the fall of dynasties, kings and populace. The societal press for respecting values and ethics are aimed at a common good, to which both ruler and the ruled are subjected. The power-intoxicated notion that a king can do as he wishes is immoral and ineffective in the longer run. Let us remind ourselves, pragmatism and effectiveness are integral ideas of realpolitik, a disbelief in inherent human goodness. The more we adopt 'pragmatic' stance and let go off moral values, higher the chances of distrust brewing up in between king-people, people-people and kings-kings, ensuring high instability, to the degree of quantum mechanics. It is such an approach and consequences, Game of Thrones present to the reader and viewer, definitely not an endorsement. The distrust between varying competitors for scarce resources set off the chain of violent events often avoidable. As one of those Plato-quotes suggests a little bit belief doesn't hurt. Thus, I read the article.

Mayan Calendar and a Beautiful Night Sky

The world hasn't ended except for those who died on Dec 21st. Poor things, may their soul rest in peace. So, what was all those noise about? Did the Mayans actually predict the world's end? No, is the answer. The Mayans are an ethnic group still inhabiting the central America and had been a great classical civilization once. They were especially advanced in mathematics and astronomy. Mayans had multiple calendars, longer ones succeeded the shorter ones, combining multiple ones to create newer and elaborate counts. Apart from the normal lunar and solar calendars, Mayans developed a longer calendar, called a Calendar Count, combining a solar and lunar to calculate longer years, up to 52 years. Mayans went longer, literally. In order to calculate years in the range of millennia, they combined these previous calendars to create a newer and longer one, spanning over five millennia. Or 5125 years to be exact. It is known as the Long Count Calendar. At the end of which another great cycle begins, normally like any other calendar, only pretty longer in this case. To know more about how a simple calendar was turned into a doomsday myth and related stories, please visit NASA's Beyond 2012 section. To read more about the Mayan calendar and functions, visit How Stuff Works: How Mayan Calendar Works?

Out of context and out of curiosity- I stumbled upon a beautiful post on a Facebook page, I fucking love science. The post showed a cosmopolitan city, beautifully illuminated night sky at the back drop. A photographer named Thierry Cohen, took these photos to show how night skies would look at the absence of light pollution in cities. Ineffably beautiful indeed!

Does Our Universe Exist Within A Black Hole?

Simulated view of black hole in front of large Magellanic clouds

The universe never ceases to amaze me. So, does the discipline of cosmology. Earlier I had posted a piece on the possibility of our Universe's existence as a simulation programmed from future. Whether it's true or not, that isn't the only explanation, not at all. Hypothesis, regardless of their truth value or final result under a scientific observation, embodies human creativity and imagination. A poem of fine quality written in sciences, many hypotheses are. What do we know about our Universe? Nothing, my answer is. The more we make an attempt at understanding it, as a layman, the better we are informed of our ignorance. True, wisdom is not the perfect knowledge but our understanding of the depth of our imperfection.

Nikodem Poplawski

Indiana University theoretical physicist, Nikodem Poplawski, proposes a radical yet viable idea about the origin and existence our universe. Using Euclidean mathematical modelling (God knows what it is!) he puts forward the notion of our Universe's existence within a black hole, probably inside the worm hole. As most physics enthusiasts know, two great pillars of modern-day physics are Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Max Planck's Quantum Mechanics. Since the proposal of these ground breaking ideas physicists have been trying to incorporate both. It is also quintessential in the quest for the so-called theory of everything aka the Unified Field Theory. As of now, both theories of relativity and quantum mechanics remain separate. Relativity explains happenings of macro scale such as black hole, galaxies etc and Quantum mechanics explain working of particles at atomic levels. Scientists wish to integrate both into one Quantum Gravity. If so, it could well explain many mysteries that dodge physicists such as the dark energy, the cosmological constant, acceleration, existence of singularities etc. Our guy, Nikodem Poplawski, offers an explanation, he believes, answer these scenarios best, by far.

Nikodem Poplawski explains that the universe exists within a black hole and our parent black hole itself could exist within another larger universe. The implication is that our universe's building blocks were routed from an external source. He also seeks help of Einstein-Cartan gravity model, a 1960 adaptation of Theory of Relativity, in the explanation of spin and torsion. Apparently every particle has a spin, the result of which is a torsion. Torsion in simple words means a uni-dimensional rod twisted. If the rod is too thin the twist in unrecognizable. The torsion produces repulsive forces, a possible answer to the existence of dark energy, acceleration and the mismatch between the proportions of matter and anti-matter. As per the hypothesis, the gravitational attraction overpowers torsion but torsion eventually grows stronger enough to halt compression of matter into infinite density. Thus matter gain a finite density. Such a dense state leads to the production of infinite particles, increasing the mass of the black hole. The increasing number of particles with spin leads to greater repulsive torsion forces and a 'big bounce' occurs, thus the expansion of universe happens. Well, interesting and intriguing, isn't it?

The problem is if at all baby universes are being created in every black holes, would we ever be able to contact them. Not a likely scenario, is it? Or is the physicist right at all? The long and arduous research holds the answer. Time shall reveal the truth. For more detailed information please read the report at Inside Science. The scientific inaccuracies about the descriptions of the theory may be excused. 

From Old Collections, Few Snippets

My father has some collections, mostly books. Not much but very readable stuff, such as those old Tell Me Why, Monster Book of Questions And Answers, on the language of English, some fictions and finally few newspaper snippets. Yes, snippets. He had the habit of cutting out news snips of interesting info. Mostly from the old Indian Express dating back to 1999. Some are on English words, others relate to some interesting random queries about the end and dawn of millennia.

The snip talks about the meaning of the word Sang-froid. It means 'calmness in an emergency situation.'

The gentleman replies to an apparent earlier letter, stating or proving on 1/1/2000, the Gregorian calendar completes two millennia. 

The above one is the most interesting, I wonder why didn't it stir up much controversy! Well, 90's, the 24X7 news culture is yet to prop up.

Please read out yourself, if interested. Something about the Julian and Gregorian calendar technicalities.

Great Debaters! I Like the Movie!

I finished watching Great Debaters (2007) yesterday. Please don't expect any ratings or critical appraisal of the film. I am no authority on films neither I have any interest to be. The only reason the film ended up in my movies folder is because of its' title and the obvious theme. The movie deals with four debaters under an eccentric intellectual professor in a small time Texas college. Set in 1935, Prof. Melvin Tolson forms a debate team of four, in Wiley College. The film had strong reference to the racial inequality Blacks had to suffer during those periods, since the main protagonists of the movie are all Blacks. Let's not delve into the film much, rather understand why does it mean anything to me. As I had mentioned in an earlier piece I am a parliamentary debater and the art holds a special position in my heart. After watching the movie, I did an online 'research' to know more about the film. As it turned out, the film is inspired by true events and most of the characters are real-life personalities who had an immense role to play in bringing about an end to the racial discrimination in US. The search on Wiley College debating team left me wonder struck. From 1935, they remained national champions for a decade with a win-loss margin of 75-1. The protagonist characters of the movie such as Melvin Tolson, Samantha Booke (partly inspired from Henrietta Bell Wells), James Farmer Jr. etc represent a period of increased intellectual activities among Black circle in US. The movie depicts the strong will power of the Black community to fight back the violence they encountered and uses debates to visualise these tensions. The climax debate of the movie, THBT civil disobedience is a moral weapon in the fight for justice, is an attempt at encapsulating the cultural transition and tensions of a bygone era. I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone, simply because I love it!

Wiley College Debate Team; Henrietta Bell Wells (in the middle) Melvin Tolson at her right

Who is the judge?

Judge is God!

Why is He God?

Because he decides who wins or loses, not my opponent!

Who is your opponent?

He doesn't exist!

Why does he not exist?

Because he is merely a dissenting voice to the truth I speak!

So, speak the truth!

VOC Coin and a USSR Stamp

Obverse

Once upon a time, I had a hobby. Numismatics, they called it. Coin collection is a very interesting pastime. My sister was a philatelist. But both of us lost interest in numismatics and philately over a same period of time. My sister went a step further forgetting she ever had a collection. Finally today, I retrieved both my coin album and my sister's stamp collection from the garage. Hiding deep under the old green-Sintex barrel, both albums look as new as ever.

Reverse

The siblings' collection is not big at all. Coins number around 40, I guess. Stamps number even more, pretty sure about that. Such a restricted collection is no excitement, save for one piece. The oldest and favorite coin of all is a 1753, VOC issued one. For a long time I was misled to believe the coin belonged to the British Empire, by the lion-crest on the reverse. While I was surfing to collect some information about my coin the truth dawned. The coin was minted and issued by Dutch East Indies Company or Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC, "United East India Company". The search for data on my coin also introduced me to couple of decent coin-collection websites, Catawiki Coin Catalogue and About.com Coin, both divulge possible information on coins, seller details and auction amounts. Well, going through my old coin collection make me feel nostalgic. I feel like starting again some old habits, wish they die hard.

1966-USSR: "Society and Technology" shows Luna 9 space mission and Moon

I am also sharing a 1966 USSR stamp, from my sister's collection, obviously. It commemorates Luna 9 space mission, under Society and technology series. Those who are interested in philately in general please visit, 123RF.

On Anti-ageing and Blood Type Character Analysis

Alright, Immortals of Meluha is finished and Secret of the Nagas is about to begin. Before that, there is an interesting concept I picked up from the former book to be shared. Somras, the drink mentioned in the book, provides near-immortality and life-long agelessness, as in you can remain young until your death, sort of In Time stuff. Shiva, the protagonist, asks Brihaspati, the chief scientist of Meluha, the secret of Somras efficiency. He replies that that the life thrives on energy. The body lives on oxygen, as it helps in metabolism and other such useful stuff. Cool enough. Then, he drops the bombshell. One of the main compounds arising as a result of oxygen's reactions, oxidants, form inside our bodies too. As seen in iron, the oxidants rust the metal and corrode it to death. Exactly the same process happen inside our body; the more oxygen we intake the more oxidants develop and subsequently corrosion-like frailty of organs set in, wearing out ourselves from inside. It is a catch-22 situation. Without oxygen we won't live; with oxygen, we corrode ourselves. And Brihaspati explains the process though which Somras enables body to excrete the toxic oxidants and extend our youth beyond imaginations.

Obviously it left me skeptic. Sounds too good to be real. Initially I felt how could an author propose such ridiculous pseudo-scientific claims. The last page glossary absorbed some of my initial madness. The author, Amish, is not way off the track. He had recommended an article to be read on this hypothesis. Kathryn Brown written A Radical Proposal, published in Scientific American, points finger at oxidants. The article suggests that if we could understand how oxidants cause the ageing-process, probably much increased life expectancy shall become a reality in near future. Later, the article slowly dives into biological mumbo-jumbo, although understandable enough to general audience. Click here to read the preview.

News snippet in Malayalam

In between, I stumbled upon a Facebook post, updated by a Malayalam page, which showed a newspaper snippet. The snip is about a group of Japanese researchers' discovery of human character relative to personal blood groups. Wow! Isn't it? Moving beyond zodiacs, birth dates and horoscopes, seems science has taken on the job of prediction of fate. Anyway, I surfed further on this to find out that the news may be actually true. The website, Asian Lifestyle Design carries the report, titled Japanese Blood Type Character Analysis. As per the website and the snippet, each blood group displays certain character traits:

• A- Hardworking, detail oriented and organised.
• B- Go 'My Way' people and highly individualistic.
• O- They see the 'big picture' and are dependable leaders.
• AB- Difficult to understand, yet creative.

The Rh factor doesn't play a role, apparently, thus blood groups could refer either to positive or negative. What else to say but the sciences and the mysteries they are unveiling are beyond comprehension of my simpleton head. As always, science is thrill, excitement and full of surprises.

Three Years back I was in Mulloor, One Day

Nandu (in all his majesty!)

The story happened almost three years back. I was in Thiruvananthapuram. My family's migration to New Delhi was being pondered upon. I had never visited my friend Nandukumar's home. He had spoken a lot about his village, Mulloor, near Vizhinjam. The twelfth standard board exams were over, vacations on. One of those holidays were chosen and Nandu called me over to his space. Aboard a Vizhinjam bound bus, bought a Rs.10 ticket, I guess. In forty-five minutes or so, destination was reached. Thanks to the extremely protective upbringing, I hardly knew my city. I  got down at Vizhinjam bus stand. Left clueless and staring at the horizon, I received Nandu's call. I found him mounted on his black Activa, spotting some fake RayBan glasses. It took another thirty minutes to reach his place. We spent some time at his home, a modest but comfortable one. I always used to make fun of him, and I still do, about how his father (a contractor) taking advantage of government funds and making a fortune out of it. Just for pun, no offences intended, obviously. We left the house shortly on his Activa, to the Mulloor beach. 

He had already fallen in love with the beach and wanted to throw me prey next. Well, the boy was right. It is the most beautiful beach shore in Thiruvananthapuram, a city that boasts of Kovalam, main Vizhinjam and other smaller beaches. But none could match the sheer beauty and serenity of the place. Its' awesome. What attracted me most were rocks, which showed effects of gradual erosion, forming beautiful patterns, providing a pre-historic feel. Nandu guided my attention to molasses and corals, glued to the rocks, washed constantly by waves after waves. Apparently Mulloor Beach is known for high and low tides, bigger in comparison with that of other beaches in the city. Nandu even dared to claim that these molasses, corals and other growths happening on the rocks stand testimony to the process of evolution, as these are 'un-evolved' life forms, only science knows. 

The boon of Mulloor, apart from its' nature gifted grace and beauty is its' relative cleanliness. The latter, the beach owes to its' secluded location and anonymity. Since people don't crowd and spill their trash, as happen in Kovalam, the state of nature is retained. There were some locals out there, staring at us, as if what are these two jeans-clad boys doing here. It was obvious that I am an outsider, a rarity at such remote places. Nandu, for the person he is, deserves a better address. Something that made me startle was the then prevailing land prices back in Mulloor and Vizhinjam, which literally amounted to crores per a cent of land. Together, we badmouthed Nandu's grandpa, who refused a plum offer of land, at a cheap rate, in Mulloor long time back owing to the place's backwardness. Best opportunity foregone. 

We went on talking, in middle of which, Nandu revealed more contentious facts, one of which was that the mosque nearby his home had actually been a temple. Fine enough, it could be true, you know. Surprisingly, we bumped on to the crew of Taste of Kerala, broadcasting on Amrita TV, shooting a sea-food special episode on the shores. While the rest of the crew was taking a break, somehow we ended up talking to one crew member or did I start the conversation? God knows. Later those guys left and without much delay so did we. Hmm, looking back at that day, I feel a comfortable warmth and wish could visit Mulloor once more. I pray, the place hasn't changed at all.

Nandu and I (after a podium finish at Tussle Quiz in 2010)

The Mother- Gorky, Relentless and Soviets

Maxim Gorky's Mother is a classic, which needs no introduction. I possess one copy of the book. Actually it belongs to my father. For some reason, I haven't been able to finish it. Two earlier attempts were made to reach the last page progressively. Initial attempt was made long back, at least 5 full Gregorian era calendars should be turned. Then, I was a kid, relatively. My own laziness stopped me from finishing. As we say, there is always a tomorrow. And that tomorrow came a long five years later, this year. I had started reading fiction seriously and had the momentum with me.

The Mother is a brilliant read and gave me the much needed literary break from action-packed adventures I had been devouring. The read is subtle and intense simultaneously. A calm and light-weighted feeling on your chest, it provided a real escape from the outside world. Anyone could easily connect with the protagonist and the pre-revolution Russian worker class plight. There came the twist in the tale. I contracted an eye infection and the doctor advised a strict No-No to books, laptops, TV etc. In whole, eyes must not be strained at all. The Mother had to be left in midway. The life resumed later and the fiction-momentum was picked up gradually, although my academics stayed as neglected as ever. The Mother, somehow, refused to come along or I didn't bother to take the read along. The book still remains in the shelf, waiting to be picked up and eager to climax. The book seems so much demanding and proud. No momentum would work against it. It is as if the read creates a space and pace of its' own, regardless of the reader's surroundings. If the novel feels tired, it rests, forcing the audience to retire. Certainly the scroll knows its' place among world classics and she demands the respect. This fiction has life; words avenge for the once-neglected lives. No wonder, the work refuses to budge. Revolutionary, indeed!

Another exciting feature about the copy is that it was printed in USSR, a remnant of past global communist Czar. My father bought it during his youth days, back in Tamil Nadu, for Rs.5! Probably a part of Soviet tactics to lead the young of the world the global revolution way!

Abhed's Blog- Re-Discovering a Lineage

My friend Abhed Kiran is a gentle man whose lineage is traced back to the erstwhile Travancore royal family. He is an avid reader, blogger and an intellectual. Most of his blogs concern about the pre-Kerala Travancore state, its' history, polity and culture.

Map of Travancore- 1871

His blog, Dharmosad Kuladaivatam, is extremely rich in dealing with the history of Kerala, something we Malayalis have chosen to forget. Out of many, two particular blog posts deserve attention, Travancore and Britannia and Kayamkulam War and Kurup's Lane. The former talks about the State of Travancore's diplomatic relations with the Great Britain during pre-Independence in general and latter deals with the Kurup families in Thiruvananthapuram and their legacy in relation with the Kayamkulam war. Both are enlightening and offers a perspective of an Indian princely state independent of North Indian dominated national history as such. Those who have a keen eye on History wouldn't miss either of them.

p.s: I don't subscribe completely to Abhed's viewpoint on history.