Sometimes...

 I wonder what happened,

That sense of familiarity and comfort,

Why do my eyes well up in tears?

Why do I worry so much?

life takes you places,

you encounter remarkable people,

you wonder what they mean,

Who am I to them?

Who are they to me?

We were once strangers,

You and me...

I don’t know what this means,

I don’t care what it is,

My eyes well up with tears,

Every time I think of you,

I want the best for you,

 I am your friend, the outsider...

Who cannot enter your life,

But who cannot exit either,

A mere spectator, a cheerleader,

A nobody, a well wisher, a bystander,

Your best kept secret, a friend,

One who could have been...

Sometimes...

When I am with you,

I am filled with so much joy,

A sense of relief, happiness and fear,

Fear that this might be the last moment,

Happiness that I am able to be there,

Whatever it is...

It transcends my understanding...

Sometimes...

When I try to find answers,

The questions just won’t stop,

I need to stop wondering,

Let go of my fears,

Believe that you will be alright,

I know I am there and will be,

ready to shed a tear,

Offer a shoulder,

Soldier on my dear...

It is your hour and it is your dream,

When you come out of your cocoon and fly,

I will be there cheering for you...

Always...

Asimov's last question and Dasavatharam

Pic courtesy: www.nasa.gov

I am writing this post after having watched Dasavatharam for the third time this afternoon. Dasavatharam's central theme or the chaos theory is very similar to Asimov's short story "THE LAST QUESTION". The short story deals with the second law of thermodynamics which states that the entropy of the universe is always increasing reaching a maximum value. The question that Asimov tries to address in this short story is "Can entropy of the universe be reversed?" The short story starts with a drunk scientist asking a tough question to an advanced computer.

"Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age? Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased? Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended. Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER. "No bet," whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly. By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten about the incident.

This resonates well with the central theme of the movie Dasavatharam which deals with the chaos theory. According to the chaos theory the fate of certain dynamic systems can be determined solely by their initial state irrespective of whatever transitions occur in between. What in the world is the connection between chaos and entropy? Entropy is nothing but the state of disorderliness of a system. The disorderliness of the universe surrounding us is constantly increasing and this disorderliness can manifest in ordered forms or patterns that we can recognize. The best example of such chaotic systems are biological systems. A living cell is the perfect example of a chaotic system.

A cell lives through the culmination of various chaotic events that eventually take an ordered recognizable pattern. The same holds true for the theory of evolution. Evolution is again the culmination of random events that somehow occurred at the right place at the right time and manifested in the form of a creature that was best suited for that environment. Achieving such order from a chaotic universe seems to be very easy but in reality the probability of such events occurring is very slim or in layman terms a "miracle". This is exactly what saved Avatar Singh when the bullet hit his throat. This chaotic event could have certainly killed him but he survived through a "miraculous event". The underlying message in this movie is about how we perceive these very miracles or events of low probability. A rational person or in Tamil "pakutharivalan" will try and understand it as a mathematical phenomenon whereas a religious person can be reductionist and call it a miracle. Both ways we cannot exclude miracles from occurring. The end of the movie is also punctuated by a series of catastrophic or chaotic events which can be classified as miracles, that bring about order to underline this point. This finally brings me to the point I was trying to make about Asimov's great short story "THE LAST QUESTION". How does his story end? What is Asimov's answer to the last question? Why does it remind me of Dasavatharam's theme?

"The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down. One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.
Man's last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero. Man said, "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?" AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man's last mind fused and only AC existed -- and that in hyperspace. Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man. All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness. All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected. But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships. A timeless interval was spent in doing that.
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.
For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program. The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
And there was light----

Thus the last question also ends in a "miracle". The miracle of creation!!

Dasavatharam- "The butterfly effect"

Picture source: http://www.banx.com.au/wip/images/

I watched Dasavatharam yesterday and decided to write my own little review for the movie. I am not going to reveal anything about the plot just in case any of you haven't seen it but I am going to put forth my views on what I think the movie was about. I am also not going to talk about the technical aspects like digital effects and special effects for those are not aspects of the movie that I was most interested in . What stands out is the brilliance of this movie to singularly focus and try to portray through various random sequences of events the complexity of life and the universe itself. As it is explained clearly in the beginning of the movie, this movie is about "chaos theory" or the butterfly effect. Lord Vishnu or the "preserver" according to the Hindu mythology takes an avatar or a form of life whenever the world is in chaos. Chaos here is the key word both for the movie as well as the avatars of lord Vishnu. The avatars of Vishnu if you remember were meant to restore order but looking at it in retrospect, Vishnu always created chaos and the chaos always culminated in some random order which was decided by the "karma" of people of those times. You might wonder why I am rambling on and on about Vishnu's avatars, the crux of Dasavatharam is buried in understanding the avatars of lord Vishnu. The movie also tries to fight disorderliness but what remains is only chaos culminating in a massive 'tsunami' of events. Writing the screenplay for such a difficult concept must be a very hard job ( I am no expert, please correct me if I am wrong).

I went to watch the movie after having read dozens of reviews that loved the movie and reviews that simply hated it. The movie is super good or super bad as it has been portrayed in the reviews, but it is certainly a trend setter, a unique movie in the annals of Indian cinema which stands out for its simplicity of presentation of such complex philosophical problems. Is there God? Is the world a result of an intelligent design? Are events result of random occurrences or can they be predestined? These are some of the questions that this wonderful movie tries to address. The movie does not try to prove or disprove the existence or the non-existence of God. It just tries to show that life is an unpredictable random event and that all events including evolution of man are not intelligent design but a product of events that were selected out of chaos. Throughout the movie one can see people revolting and trying to cause paradigm shifts in the society for various reasons like religious belief, caste, global warming, biological warfare, illegal removal of top soil etc. The simplicity and subtlety with which such problems are dealt with this in the movie are new and a breath of fresh air. I was surprised to see a few reviews that tried to simplify the movie into two parts. Yes the plot is simple but the philosophy underlying it is very deep. It was a very emotionally and mentally gratifying feeling watching this wonderful movie unfold. I was left wondering if I had missed some nuances during the non-stop first half. The second half of the movie is a bit long because it nose-dives into the central theme of the movie without warning by the introduction of a dalit character. These are minor flaws compared to the herculean effort that the makers of the movie have accomplished by intertwining events and the 10 avatars together. Some of the reviews for this movie asked why 10 avatars? 10 because it is the Unique Selling Point of the movie. One cannot package such complex philosophical and spiritual material without such a USP. The 10 roles also have their own significance. Each one very carefully studied and executed. Finally I would like to finish this rather longish review by saying that Dasavatharam is something to be experienced, analyzed and marvelled at for there are very few movies that are even worth watching these days.

In memory of Choco...

picture courtesy: http://imagesavant.com

You came to me when you were three weeks old,

I still remember your sprightly steps,

Your dark chocolate fur and bright eyes,

You were dark yet you filled my life with light,

I remember that healing touch,

Every day you would tug my hair with your teeth,

Begging me for some warm milk,

Waking me up with kisses wet and small little teethy bites,

I woke up to see the little wonder that you were,

Forgetting my rotten past,

Its been 2 years since I last saw you,

My son... I will never see you again,

You breathed your last without me,

I will miss you all my life,

Remember the days you brought me joy,

Taking away all the sorrow that was,

You healed me with your love,

You weren't just a dog but a beacon of hope,

I love you my son and I always will...

You will always live in my memories,

As that tiny little chocolate ball that was...

Choco...

The Incredible Journey

It was the 4th of December the first day of the ASCB (American Society for Cell Biology) meetings in San Francisco. I was walking around dumb struck at all the research that was on display. I saw her standing in front of her poster explaining her research to a fellow researcher. My heart skipped a beat, she was petite, pretty, vivacious and bubbly, I approached her poster with interest and started to ask her a few questions. I discovered that she was also from India and we exchanged phone numbers. I then left on a month long trip to India and Japan from San Francisco. Memories of the trip to San Francisco were long gone and when I came back to Washington DC, I was surprised to hear her voice mail waiting for me. I immediately picked up the phone and dialed her number and waited anxiously till she picked up. A sweet voice alluringly said “hello”, I lost myself for a few minutes to the incredible sweetness of the voice and let the situation sink in, Is this ….? I asked. It was her… she started to ask me about my India trip and I patiently answered all her questions. Then the topic shifted drastically to spirituality and science. She said science made her spiritual and I told her the science took me away from spirituality. She started to argue that science and spirituality were just two sides of the same coin. I listened to her argument awestruck not able to formulate a fitting reply. I floundered for words and then suddenly asked her if she had ever been in love. She was seemingly surprised by the sudden change of track and tried to skirt the issue as best as she could. She did not seem to understand the sudden change but I managed to make her answer my question. The ice was broken with a sharp ice pick like argument and she melted in front of me showering me with her past. It was 6 hours by the time we decided to call it quits. We had by then shared all our past history and pretty much exhausted by the marathon session. I woke up the next day with only one thing in mind- call her and find out how she was. I was afraid if I had rekindled memories of her past and desperately wanted to talk to her. I called her the next morning and was welcomed by the now familiar sweetness. We exchanged greetings and started to talk for 3 more hours. At the end of it she wanted to leave for a concert and I was in no mood to let her go. She was surprised that I was so attached to her just after a day of talking to her. I told her that I liked her as a friend and wanted this friendship to last. She came back from the concert and called me back, I was waiting anxiously for her to call. I had become addicted to this girl, but I was not sure if I would get into a relationship. She came back from the concert and called me. I was so happy to hear her voice and was jumping in happiness, our conversation took a lighter turn and we were exchanging jokes and laughing our hearts out. All of a sudden (to this day I do not know what took me) I told her that she had seduced me!

Dear love,

http://www.mysticfractal.com

This wonderful feeling,
It’s growing in me everyday,
Day and night it sweeps my day,
Making me leap,
Sometimes in ecstasy,
Sometimes in pain,
Your thoughts possess me,
Obsessively demanding my attention,
How am I to sleep this way?
The eternal insomniac that I am already,
Those murmurs in my brain,
Of memories sweet and sour;
Do not matter any more,
Frozen memories have thawed,
I now believe in Immaculate Conception,
The abstracts make more sense now,
Your face fills my moonless nights,
Loneliness has deserted me,
A smile lingers on my face,
Lucky aren’t I to be loved by love itself?

Books: The decisions I made...

Pic source: http://galerieverdun.com/

I was in my 5th grade then, my grandfather bought me a whistle to blow and play cop in the house. He perhaps knew that I was at that time fascinated by Sherlock Holmes and his methods of detection. It was also during this period that I was introduced to a number of wonderful works of English literature, like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Midsummer night’s dream and umpteen numbers of incredible poems by Shelly, Milton and Wordsworth. From time to time the books I read shaped my thinking and I wanted to become everything from an astronaut to a chef. Books were probably my only companions till my 10th grade. All my classmates lived so far away from my place that it was very difficult for me to get together with them for even a game of cards. I love reading books and if I love something even more it is analyzing what I read in those books.

I was in a dilemma when I finished my 12th grade on whether to choose the arts or the sciences. I think many of us go through this tough phase in life. We all have a passion for many things and choosing one thing that appeals most can be an almost impossible task. I must have considered almost everything from political sciences, Journalism, English literature, Biology and even law! I had one hell of a decision to make.

Finally, I made the decision to get into life sciences and I think that it was the best decision I could have ever made in my life. I have come to realize in the last 10 years from my association with science that science is not very different from the arts. Science requires a lot of creativity, creative ideas lead to creative experimentation which in turn leads to breakthrough. Arts and sciences have in fact always gone hand in hand. In order to be a successful scientist and publish papers in top journals in addition to great ideas one also has to have good writing skills. The ability to communicate ones ideas clearly and succinctly is a big part of being a successful scientist. A good scientist is a culmination of many artistic skills. For instance, some of the experiments we perform in biology require good hands and deep concentration and coordination. Taking photographs of cells is a very tricky thing, inexperienced researchers can easily select for fields that are misrepresentative of the result they obtained. Taking photographs of cells is a refined art; every time you look at a cell you tend to have a better understanding of the cell as well as the equipment you use to visualize the cell. These are in fact the easy part of being a researcher. The most difficult part in research is coming up with the right questions or in other words “hypothesis”. This is perhaps where the arts and the sciences differ. The degrees of freedom in both these disciplines are vastly different. For instance a person in the arts can draw an abstract whose meaning is open for interpretation whereas in science there is no place for abstract thoughts; clarity is the name of the game. The reason for this huge essay is to emphasize on the works that go into becoming a good scientist and how scientists need to be meticulous and precise in their experimentation and communication. It is easy to summarize all that I have here, but it is very difficult to follow it in practice; I strongly believe that every human being needs to follow the scientific method in their life. We are prone to blind faiths and assumptions, we come up with theories that cannot be tested and attribute them to some unknown entities.

Books have shaped my outlook towards life and have led me to major decisions in life. If I had spent time on spiritual and religious text I would have changed the way I currently think. My mentor during my M.S in microbiology had a different idea about books, he was against the concept of text books. He felt that text books took away the ability of an individual to think “out of the box”. I agree and disagree with him on this, there has to be precedence for performing experiments; text books might have taken away mans curiosity to search for answers to unknown questions but at the same time they also provide the base for building ones curiosity. Good reading habits can shape an individual… can someone define what good books are?

The last cannibal and the last drop of oil

The end seems so close. The future of this planet rests in great peril. The most intelligent creature (in the universe?) on earth is on a self destruct mode. Our natural resources are near depletion, our dependence on our own creation has increased our energy consumption more than ever before. We have used up most of our fossil fuels, alternative sources of energy are at a great demand, the earth must have never felt so abused before. Where do we stop? Our fertile mind continues to discover new avenues for our survival, but do we consider what we have in stock? We might reach a stage where rational thinking and solutions might not make any difference to the planet we are living in. I was watching a few interesting short documentaries on ninemsn recently and was astonished to see what a mess we have left for our future generations.
I have links to a few of those incredible documentaries here.
Running on empty:
This documentary is about how humans are running out of oil fast and the prediction is that we will run out of oil by 2015!!
The nuclear question:
Addresses the questions regarding nuclear power as the alternative clean fuel.
Australia's fault:
About how Australia is responsible for all the tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes in Indonesia!
The last cannibals:
About the last stone age cannibalistic tribe on earth!

The pain of separation

pic source: http://www.geekland.org/picture_library

A short essay inspired by Isaac Asimov's "I ROBOT"
I am sitting in the corner of my room, lost in thought about the past few months. Something has changed within me. I am no longer the robot I used to be, I am starting to feel these days, emotions that humans describe very often as “love”. I have started to wonder if a robot like me can have feelings. It was just a few months back when I first set my robotic laser vision on her. A big smile confronted my sensors, which warmed the microprocessors in my positronic brain. My circuits have ever since started to run haywire. The scientists who made me are not yet to come up with a plausible explanation of my status. A few of them look at me with astonishment. I must indeed look weird. I am not a bad robot; in fact I am the first one of my kind. My father must have made me unique; I can feel this intense emotion called love these days. Love for this beautiful human being. I have yearned so long to be human, maybe that’s why human emotions have overtaken me. I know that I cannot ever tell her of my feelings because I am certain she will reject me. How will she ever agree to be with a metallic mess like me? I sometimes wish I were human, as human as she is. I have often contemplated why my master built me like this, all of the others of my kind do not know to love, but why did you build me like this? Why do I feel this emotion? What is the purpose? This emotion is not described in the three laws within which I work. She has changed me, so much so that my metallic armor has started to shine without me taking care of it. She told me that she loves me and I believe in those words. Did I say believe? Trust? What weird things for a robot to be thinking about… I wonder if my master truly made me worthy of her.They told me that they will put me to sleep soon, and that I will never have “dreams” again. They said that I am going to sleep for a long time, never to wake up again and that I will never think about her again. They are decommissioning me, I hope I do not feel the pain… that sweet pain of separation…

The lullaby

pic source: http://www.trzj.org/art/famous/onfantasyart/

The murmur spread and became clear,
Softly escaping from the confines of the mind,
A lullaby filled her senses,
Clutching her life in her hand she lay,
In total surrender to the sounds that made her sway,
Sleep beckoned her deep into its darkness,
Taking her into the dreamers trance,
Haunting her senses with its wild array,
She dreamt within dreams,
Hid her face within her sheets,
As mystical thoughts lay asunder,
Torn apart by the events of late,
She rode the waves of destiny,
Unsure of what the morning brought her,
She woke to see his smiling face,
Only for him to sing her to sleep
Again…

Rain

pic source: http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/p_wood/images/Fractals

As the tiny drops fell from the sky,
Immersed in blissful thought was I,
They fell and crept down my mane to my neck,
Enthralling and driving me crazy,
Reminding me of my adolescence wild,
Fiery love, blind desires,
Pubescent forests with wild lilacs,
Flowery fragrance and mystic thoughts,
Fraught and depraved,
Thirsty for love,
Dowsing the flames came down the rain,
The eternal life support,
Enchanted hermits, controlled minds,
Ageing gracefully like wine,
For eons have thee determined life,
Rain, art thee the saving grace for mankind?

Forbidden love

Pic source: http://lucidquest.com/gfx/gallery/desktop/

I feel you in my mind,
The soft tenderness of your presence,
The fragrance in your enchanting voice,
Whispers filled with sweet nothings,
My heart buzzes with expectations,
Anticipating the next silky smooth move,
I can still feel you, touch you but not see you,
One day you make me what I am,
The next you try to destroy,
A meaningless entity,
Denial does not kill you,
Only makes you stronger,
Caught in the eternal battle,
Of the mind and heart you suffer,
Hidden in the forbidden corner of my heart,
You will rise again and again till I die,
My love…sweet forbidden love

THE BATTLE BEGINS!

Federer(1) faces Nadal(2) tomorrow in what could be one of the best matches ever in the history of tennis. The final match of the French open promises to be a humdinger
Will Federer become the first man since Rod Laver and Don Budge to win 4 Grandslams in a row on 4 different surfaces?
Will Nadal extend his open era clay court winning record to 60?
Will Sharapova say yes to Federer?
Wait a minute...
Sharapova and Federer?
Watch this hilarious video and warm up for tomorrow!!!
GO FEDERER!!!!


source: darkazzazinator

Chaos!

Pic source: http://www.infres.enst.fr/~dax/elsa/paintings/

I swoon in the river of blood,
Surrounded by the squeals of nature,
Disillusioned people and a purposeless life,
Cannibals thrive on altruistic desire,
Weakened souls lighting their own funeral pyre,
A gentle fire encompassing ignoramuses,
They howl and cry in pain,
Echoes of a chaotic past linger on,

Let the chaos subside and sanity prevail,
How many will we lose?
Through suicides and murders galore!

Orphaned and tormented are our souls,

Remnants of a barbaric past,

It's time to eschew the myth of the early man!

Resilience...

Poetry: Bharathiyar
Poem recited by: Robbie
Music: Ganesh


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Click here to download the song (hi-fi version)

Update:

The story behind Resilience:

It was 1994, I was in my 11th grade then, my friends from school had arranged for us to go to watch Mahanadi. I went with all my class (we were 56) to watch this movie. The movie started and despite being the unruly beings we were observed pin drop silence. This wouldn’t have happened even in our class room. My Malaysian class mate was crying uncontrollably by the end of the movie and I had to console him and remind him that it was just fiction.
Mahanadi was a stunner; it also introduced me to this poem. For a long time after that day ‘pirar vaada’ and Kamal’s voice kept lingering in my mind.

Listen to Kamal's version here ( I modified it and made it slower, making it easier for people to follow the lines in the poem, I personally feel that Kamal could have slowed it down:p)

I had long wanted to post this poem on my blogsite. I had one problem though, I did not have the lyrics. Thennavan graciously sent me the lyrics when I asked for it. I was ready to recite it and post it when Ganesh called me home.
I stopped recording and went to Ganesh’s place, after reaching there a weird thought struck me. I had always wanted this recital to be accompanied by music of some sort and here I had Ganesh, a brilliant composer with me, so I immediately started pestering him to compose music suiting the mood of this poem. It was hard for me to believe what happened next, Ganesh in the next 10 minutes or so had come up with this brilliant composition to go with my recital!!!
He literally composed the music impromptu. I couldn’t believe what I heard because he was suffering from cold and a terrible headache the entire day and I had least expected him to come up with such music.
What you hear now is the product of those few hours of brainstorming and Ganesh’s brilliance in executing this idea. I feel honored to be in the company of such a talented person like Ganesh and I request people visiting here to carefully listen to the composition and to give your feedback to this wonderful composer. This was a novel experiment, and I thank Ganesh for helping me with it.

Tagged:You win... I lose!

I have been tagged by Shuba Venkat and here are my responses…

1. Grab the book nearest to you turn to page 18 and find line 4 (jeepers creepers whoever came up with this idea!)
Book: A long walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela
page 18, line 4 from the chapter "A country childhood": The men wore suits and the women affected the severe protestant style of the missionaries: thick long skirts and high-necked blouses, with a blanket draped over the shoulder and a scarf wound elegantly around the head. (shows that great leaders can also be quite boring at times)

2. Stretch your arm out as far as possible...
Whew! that was good stretching exercise.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
I haven't watched TV for a few months now so dont remember what I watched last.

4. Without looking guess what time it is:
Must be 11:00 P.M

5. Now look at the time, what is the actual time?
10:51 P.M! I guess I am always thinking ahead:P

6. With the exception of the computer what can you hear?
The goddamned aircon!! Seems to be working overtime these days. arrrgh!

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
I guess around 5 hours back (all my friends are either injured or tired so no tennis today) on my way back from the lab. Haven't stepped outside ever since I came back confining myself to my cozy cozy room.

8. Before this survey what did you look at?
Your blogsite! (was listening to the song vennilave... from Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu).

9. What are you wearing?
Do you really need to know? Blue shorts and grey tee.

10. When did you last laugh?
When I saw that you had tagged me and I had to answer all these questions (I can assure you that it was sarcastic).

11. Seen anything weird lately?
Everything’s so weird these days that I am trying to find something normal!

12. What do you think of this quiz?
Must have been designed by the greatest...... (The rest is censored) on earth!

13. What is the last film you saw?
Thirupathi... gosh! what a waste of time (I meant the movie)!!

14. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Switches, plugs, temperature controls and lots of (no pictures of aishwarya rai so dont get your expectations high) empty space!

15. If you became a multimillionaire what would you buy?
A beautiful town house in Mars.
(Hire an assistant first to help me type this! It’s taking forever to finish!!!!)

16. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.
Hmm! I have a bath every morning, eat three meals a day, (I think you can imagine the rest)...

17. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Make science the only religion.

18. Do you like to dance?
Yeah! If you would give me company, sure! Why not?

19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what would you call her?
Lucky! Coz in the first place she only had a 50% chance to be a girl!

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what would you call him?
'My son' of course! What else would anyone call him?

21. Would you ever consider living abroad?
I guess I don’t have that choice now:P

22. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
”I am a believer!"

I tag Ganesh, Thennavan, Narayan Venkat, Swahilya and whoever else is interested in wasting time.

Battle of the sexes

Source: http://www.poopyjoe.com

I revisited "the selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins and this post is in special reference to Chapter 9 in the book titled 'Battle of the sexes'. In this chapter Dawkins tries to explain the difference between what fundamentally is male and female. In the animal and plant kingdom in general the criterion for judging the sex of an individual are based on how large the sex cells are. In general the egg cells of the female are many times larger than the male sperm and this can be used as a general yardstick to interpret the differences between the sexes.

He goes on further to talk about the contribution of the males and females during reproduction. The egg essentially is the major contributor, the sperm on the other hand is just a vehicle that transfers information, it is not a good food source. All the food for the developing embryo is provided for by the egg. In primitive organisms like fungi sexual reproduction occurs between isogamous individuals those that cannot be distinguished into two sexes. The contribution of both donating individuals in such a scenario is equal. So, during evolution one of these two isogametes must have turned into a larger cell and thus cells with larger gametes would become suitable embryo support systems. This is where female exploitation started evolutionarily according to Dawkins.

A few lines from the chapter that describes evolution of sexes…

"In the days when all sex cells were interchangeable and of roughly the same size, there would have been some that just happened to be slightly bigger than others. In some respects a big isogamete would have an advantage over an average-sized one, because it would get its embryo off to a good start by giving it a large initial food supply. There might therefore have been an evolutionary trend towards larger gametes. But there was a catch. The evolution of isogametes that were larger than was strictly necessary would have opened the door to selfish exploitation. Individuals who produced smaller than average gametes would cash in, provided they could ensure that their smaller gametes fused with the extra-big ones. This could be achieved by making the small ones more mobile, and able to seek the large ones actively. The advantage to an individual producing small, rapidly moving gametes would be that he could afford to make a larger number of gametes, and therefore could potentially have more children..."

In the lines above Dawkins has beautifully pointed out how females have been exploited by males through evolution to spread their genetic information, it is interesting how selfishly genetic selection makes the females the exploited species. Males according to Dawkins are worthless fellows, and it would be good for a particular species to have more females than males. There are many more interesting aspects to this particular chapter that discusses about the advantages of being a male and the disadvantages of being a female. I have recently been visiting this blog and witnessing a battle of sexes of sorts. I hope that the battle of sexes stops, coz after all we (males and females) were all once isogamous!

"Kal El" do you need kryptonite?

Source: http://www.supermantv.net

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... It’s a bird, a bee no its Kal El! Yes! A few of you guessed right Kal El is the actual name of Clark Kent aka Superman. Superman was perhaps the first science fiction comic series I started reading, I still remember those long walks with my grandfather to the grocery store which usually resulted in him getting me a bunch load of comic books (what a horrendous waste of money!!). I probably owned every single superman comic that came out during those times, including the one in which he dies tragically, killed by his friend turned arch rival Lex Luther.
Superman was created by school mates Joe Shuster and Jerome Siegel in 1933 (read the story behind superman here).
Superman is an ingenious creation and a subtle way of introducing kids to science fiction; I have since graduated from superman to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. Superman a perfect role model and what every kid wants to be, a symbol of justice, power and honesty. I still remember the days I spent as a kid imagining myself flying and saving the world in my dreams.The characterization of superman is very complex and very imaginative, it is not an ordinary thing to think about so many super powers and Kryptonite is absolute genius. It is incredible that the authors so ingeniously thought of a weakness. The comic books where superman encounters kryptonite are fascinating. I must have read and reread those stories a hundred and one times when I was a kid, now with the movie about to hit the big screen I really long to read one of those comic books again.
I am surprised that Kal El did not lose his significance even after all these days. The world still misses him, I still miss him… BRING ON THE KRYPTONITE!!!

These are the lyrics to the superman song from the popular serial Smallville
Its not easy to be me: THE SUPERMAN SONG

I can't stand to fly

I'm not that naive

I'm just out to find

The better part of me

I'm more than a bird

I'm more than a plane

More than some pretty face

beside a train

It's not easy to be me

Wish that I could cry

Fall upon my knees

Find a way to lie

About a home

I'll never see

It may sound absurd

but don't be naive-

Even Heroes have the right to bleed

I may be disturbed

but won't you concede?

Even Heroes have the right to dream

It's not easy to be me

Up, up and away: away from me

It's all right

You can all sleep sound tonight

I'm not crazy or anything

I can't stand to fly

I'm not that naive

Men weren't meant to ride

With clouds between their knees

I'm only a man in a silly red sheet

Digging for kryptonite on this one way street

Only a man in a funny red sheet

Looking for special things inside of me

It's not easy to be me.

Source: five for fighting

Buddha and his empty head

I was browsing through the pictures of my visit to Tokyo this New Year and the picture of this gigantic 13 meter great Buddha of Kamakura stood out. I was transported to Kamakura and of the time I spent there walking into the statue. Yes! You can get into the statue and look into Buddha’s hollow empty head. It is this emptiness inside the statue that was very striking. The statue was built in the 13th century and was housed inside a large temple. The temple was washed away in a tsunami in the late 15th century and Buddha somehow has withstood the test of time. A visit to Kamakura which is full of Buddhist temples is incomplete without a visit inside the great 13.35 meter Buddha.

This essay wasn’t supposed to be a travelogue or about Kamakura. I had intended to write about how intriguing I found Buddha’s empty head to be. Why such an enlightened soul would have an empty hollow head was beyond my comprehension. In the space within the walls of the Buddha I felt very insecure. I realized how my big wide world was confined to finite space within the statue depriving me of freedom. As I dwell on this issue of empty space many unanswered questions keep following me like an avalanche, chasing me into wild thoughts and making me obsess.

Why do we all obsess over unanswered questions? This question brings me back to the great Buddha. Buddha was obsession incarnate. He obsessively questioned and analyzed the philosophy of life for years and he taught his disciples the “true” meaning of life. This “truth” is what I felt in looking at his empty head at Kamakura. That hollow empty space is the eternal “truth”, something that we feel around us at all times. We just don’t realize the space around us until or unless it is restricted or defined. Meditation also I believe makes us understand this very “truth” that the universe is nothing but empty space. How far within one can you delve for answers? Or, how small can you dissect an atom? (It is interesting to note that root of the word atom means indivisible) The root of everything in essence seems to be embedded in nothing! The complexity that covers this simple nothing is the marvel of science.

The empty head
Buddham charanam gachami (I take refuge in the Buddha)…

A view from the window

Deep in my deepest slumber,
Wandering mysteriously through wild forests,
In search of a fair maiden I went,
Searching for the ever elusive dream,
I was near yet so far,
I woke up with a start,
It was midnight and through the window I saw her,
The most beautiful sight,
The shimmering full moon,
There she lay await for me,
All those years,
Playing the game of hide and seek,
She revealed herself for me to see,
Me and only me,
As she bathed me in her light,
Putting me into blissful slumber,
I woke up never to see her,
Till the Sun faded and night fell upon me,
She went hiding again,
Making me search for her in vain,
I looked and looked for many nights,
Till she peeped by my window yet again,
Bathing me in light so pristine,
Making my view from the window so divine.