Induced Conciousness

Have you ever felt that you were oblivious of something completely until somebody pointed it out, and then you become so conscious of it that you wish it was never brought to your notice in the first place? I had a similar experience recently. One of my friends wrote a blog on how his hands have become extra baggage since winter got over. Winter was really cold in Columbus and walking in the snow with hands cozily tucked inside jacket pockets had its own charm. Now the snow has gone and it is nice warm weather with beautiful flowers everywhere. Along with the snow, jackets and their pockets have also gone. My friend pointed out that with no pockets to put his hands in, he sometimes felt them hanging by his torso with no purpose. I thought this was a ridiculous idea, but unfortunately, I have also started wondering what my hands are doing when I have nothing in particular to do. Being very conscious makes things look weird. Thanks to my friend, I am beginning to find my hands annoying at times.

This is a very queer phenomenon. How does someone else's opinion impose itself on us? Even when the idea sounds ridiculous and we disagree completely, the fact that we are aware of it sometimes changes the way we perceive things! Logic dictates that such cirumstances should never arise. If something is so outrageously inane, why should anyone buy it? And yet, it affects us so deeply. It is as if we are a peice of iron and whenever a magnet is nearby, whether we like it or not, we acquire some magnetism! In this context, the term "social magnet" can mean quite different. I cannot help but wonder "why do we get affected in such strange ways?". It may not always be bad but opinions propagate in subtle ways. Maybe there is a deep connection between individuals in a social setup and an attempt to parametrize it will be fun. Someday, I may come up with a definition of "social magnetic susceptibility" and subtly force other people to believe in it. I am not sure if it will be a good parameter, but I know for sure that Babubhai wont like it!

dress up for the occasion!

Not dressing up for the occasion can often lead to social faux pas. I realized this the hard (and very embarrassing) way today. I and some of my friends were playing tennis. It was not planned and I wasn't wearing proper sports apparel. Being newbies, we started slow, but as adrenaline kicked in, I went for more daring shots. It was one such bold shot that exceeded the limit of my shorts. I tore it at its most sensitive part. To make things worse, there were three girls playing in the adjacent court. I had to make a quick exit but the nearest other pair of trousers was in my office, half a mile away. I walked all the way with just a bag held strategically to minimize further humiliation. This was one of most embarrassing things I have faced. Don't ever fail to dress up for the occasion!

Romance Vs Reason

Harmony is a funny term. It may not mean the same thing to different people and they can all be right at the same time. I had been trying to draw the perfect line of harmony between romantic tendencies and reason, with very confusing results. Please don't mistake my use of the word 'romance' for 'love'. Here, I am referring to being ardent, passionate or fervent with little or no regard for feasibility. Being a PhD student in Physics, I tend to be more logical than romantic. My first reaction to anything new is to analytically dissect it into pieces and reassemble them in all possible permutations and combinations. For somebody relying on physics to be his source of bread and butter, this may not sound so bad. However, I sometimes sense a lack of feelings. Too much of logic makes man mechanical.

On the other hand, being romantic doesn't fit into our current society very well. At every step, we are forced to make decisions that can change the course of our lives. For example, we had to choose between 'science' and 'arts' in school before we were legally allowed to even choose our leaders in an election! Being fanciful or utterly idealistic won't help in making the right decisions. Competition is fierce in today's world, and more is the demand for a pragmatic approach. How then do we strike balance between these two facets of human life? If good reasoning guides us to our goal, it is romance that adds color to the journey!

Have you noticed that I have clinically dissected this issue already? It helps me gain insight but it also deprives me of emotions. It is sort of a conundrum. To find the optimal balance I need to understand the issue first. However, an attempt to understand inevitably destroys the balance. Anyways, keeping this shortcoming aside, let's continue with our analysis. The crucial step is to define 'happiness'. Being successful in one's career or earning lots of money doesn't necessarily imply a fulfilled life. Partying all the time wont lead to long lasting happiness either. Requirements for a content life may differ from one person to another, but it is clearly the key to reaching the optimal state. So, the question we need to answer now is "How do we stay happy?". My answer is "flow with the natural current". One needs to live in the present and let things take their natural course. It means that one's effort should be in the direction of the flow and not against it. One wise Zen master once said, " Through non-action, everything can be done". I just wish it was so simple.

Song of the darkness

There was nothing but darkness around.
Yes, darkness of an everlasting night.
The wind thundered through swaying trees;
The loudest noise, just a pin's drop.
But through the piercing cries I heard a voice-
A sweet mysterious voice from afar,
So like a happy song of a happy soul.
And yet, in the darkness, hard to believe.
Human nature is the greatest puzzle of all.
In the cursed storm, a soul could sing merrily.
Could there be inspiration from darkness?
Or could it be ignorance, for ignorance is bliss?
An unanswered question it shall remain,
But one truth I know for sure.
The song was sweet and mysterious
Sung above the ominous cries of the darkness.

Why Blog?

Am I slow or is time running faster? I love to think of myself as a well informed guy in tune with current trends. Apparently I wasn't. Instead, I was a perfect example of "ignorance is bliss"! Can you believe I didn't know how RSS feeds work until yesterday? Being trained in Physics, doing non trivial mathematics on Mathematica, I had come to think of myself as tech savvy. I couldn't have been more wrong! There is a whole new world out there. What will I do without some engineer friends and a proactive girlfriend? An irrepressible need to assure myself that I am not 'outdated' in this fast evolving world made me start this blog. Expressing oneself freely helps.

Hmmm.. How do I start then? How about I was bullshitting so far? I don't really care if I am up to date or not! I just needed a medium to throw out my ideas. Today Prof. Randeria talked about Lars Onsager who was a reclusive mathematical genius known in the physics community for his solution of the 2D Ising model. For all the brilliant ideas he had, he didn't care to publish all of them. When he solved the 2D Ising model, he just stood up in a conference and announced his result. It took almost a decade for people to confirm he was right! For a genius like him, it didn't really matter whether his ideas got published or not. He anyways won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But what about an ordinary guy like me? I seriously need to peddle my ideas. Nobody is going to spend a decade to find out what I thought about anything. In fact, there is a necessity to sometimes force feed theories that I cook up to unsuspecting victims (sorry Babubhai!). It is precisely with this intention that I have started this blog. I cannot promise that you will like all that is going to come, but at least you will get to know how I think. Cheers! I just saved a decade for you!