The magic of being!

I wasn't sure what we all were looking at. It looked like a HUGE space-craft spanning almost 5 miles and was so high that we couldn't see how tall it was...as we strained our eyes to see its end, it seemed to taper and finally disappear, though we were pretty sure it was structurally a cube...well, hows that possible now?....anyways, we stepped forward hesitantly...and then came on the lights....I mean, there was light before, but now everything was some sort of an illusion and we felt as if we were in a hologram....

We suddenly realised that everything we were thinking was being recorded somewhere and this machine was responding to our thoughts...time enough to dwell on that but I needed answers first....what I was standing on felt lighter than air but was tough as nails and I did not have to walk on it, it seemed to move beneath my feet and took me in whichever direction I wanted to go...sound was not sound in here, sound was what made things move...our eyes couldn't really see since it seemed we were in more than 3 dimensions.. white light split into not 7 but more like a million colors...and colors so fragile that a small tilt of your head changed them drastically...air was not plain old air, air moved in exotic patterns that you could feel around you....

This wondrous machine and everything in it was definitely alien or at least not invented by us yet....but hey, it was actually centuries old....how can that be????

And then it struck me - this was something from the future time traveled to the past!!!

And that's when I woke up...

The lost wonders

I am not very well-traveled and thats something that really has to change. So a resolution I made (which I know I'll stick to simply because its so much fun) is to take a foreign holiday every year. Now I know what to save up for!! And the family trip next year to the Lasa Mountains has been on the cards for a long time now so hopefully it should materialise...I was thinking today where to go after that....whats the harm in a little wishful thinking? :)

My colleague once told me - you are a pro-UFO person. Well, yes!!! I most certainly am and I totally heart pro-UFO people. I firmly and sincerely believe that civilizations superior to ours must exist somewhere in the Universe simply because its very complacent to assume that they dont.

I vaguely knew that there is a whole lot of evidence that suggests this in South America, which is why I wanted to go there next. So today I spent a lot of time reading up on it. And I was totally unprepared for some of the astounding facts I found. The probable implications are impossible for me to contemplate which is why I felt I MUST share and hence this post....

We have all wondered whatever possessed the pre-Incan people to build the Nazca Lines, or how was it possible that a hundreds-of-years-old calendar having equinoxes, astronomical seasons and even the positions of the Moon for every hour was found in a mud pit in Tiahuanaco?

But check out this drawing on a cliff at the Bay of Pisco, hundreds of years old.. It is the drawing of an 820 foot high stone sign which is there on the Red Cliffs...You tell me, is it not madness on their part to build something like this? Assuming they did not have the modern machinery we have, it wouldve taken decades, if not more!! Why is it there?? What does it mean? It has a long rope in the centre which serves as a pendulum...it is a sign-post..but for whom??? Who on Earth needed an 820 foot long signpost at that age???

Then theres the Great Idol which I CANT die without seeing. The symbols on it  record the state of the Heavens some 27,000 years ago and is a sort of  a knowledge base for future generations. And its still not clear if it was devised by men on Earth or handed to them from....I dunno...Anyhow, disregarding the superb precision of its symbols or its construction and the quality of the sandstone  which must have been inconceivable during that time, it contains a huge mass of astronomical knowledge, which were indeed based on a round Earth and differs from the present day estimates by 0.4 seconds....it even conforms to the Theory of Satellites published in 1927, five years before the idol was discovered....alright, but 27000 years????

Then there is the Gate of the Sun....the weight of this single piece of masonry is something like 10 tons. How did they even build it at that time? It depicts a flying God. It talks of a golden spaceship and in it came a woman  who said she was the Great Mother of Earth, she had four webbed fingers, and she returned to space. Could this have happened? Why not?? We will also seem like Gods with amazing powers and abilities to a civilization which has just begun...

In the city of Sacsahahuaman, we have a rock that  is thousands of years old...and is something like 20,000 tonnes standing on its head....it has been quarried and transported...with rock vitrification possible only at the highest temperatures...HOW did they manage that???? and in it are inscribed calculations which if we convert to our notation is 195955200000000...a 15 digit number...well, the Greeks never rose beyond 10,000 even in the best of their times..

I could go on and on but I wont, mostly because its too tedious to type all this...but I simply cant wait to visit all these places with their fascinating histories...the expenses might get prohibitive since some of these cant be reached even by road.. but it'll be a tragedy if we dont see all this no??.....

Talk about lost worlds!....and yes, I am more pro-UFO than ever today :P

A visit of sorts - nD musings

It will take around 14,000 million years to travel to the edge of the observable Universe, even if we travel at the speed of light. 

The operative word here is observable. This fact never ceases to astound me. How distressingly small are we! It is as if the Universe and its existence is this wondrous machine and we on Earth have access to one tiny part of it. And with our limited resources and our exposure to that tiny part, we are trying to fathom how the entire machine works...

This may never happen because we are limited by our abilities. For example, we know that some animals and birds can see colors that we can’t see or hear sounds that we can’t hear. There may be countless other such things  we may never know of. So how can we understand something if we are not aware that it is there?

Moreover, we are limited to a mere three dimensions (apart from time) while the Superstring Theory accurately predicts ten dimensions of space and time in existence. Think of the huge limitations we face because of this!

Just as an example of what we might be missing, imagine a 2D world like a sheet of paper. Take a look at this picture I’ve painstakingly drawn. Person A (the one with a red left arm and a green right arm ) can never assume the position of person B (arm color reversed) in a 2D scenario simply because there is no height or rather the space to make the transition. Left and right cannot be interchaged on a 2D surface. But we in 3D can lift him up, simply flip him over and he can be converted to person B. So what seems impossible in a 2D world is easy in 3D.

Interestingly, A can be converted to B if he moves on a Mobius Strip (see pic). Just take a strip of paper, twist it in the center and join the edges. So if A moves along the surface of the strip, even in a 2D world, he can flip over. So it is possible, after all...Wouldnt it be awesome if we too had something like this? Ive racked my brains enough to come up with a possible counterpart in 3D, but no avail. If you have any ideas, please tell me.

Imagine the miracles we can perform if we had access to just another dimension. But unfortunately, we can’t even imagine it :( Access to a fourth dimension would definitely give us God-like powers. For instance, we can walk out of closed doors, pass right through objects, see everything that happens on the Earth at any given moment, etc. To understand this, once again consider a person who is in prison in a 2D world (see pic). So for him to get out, the circle around him should be broken. But we in 3D can lift him out; wont it seem miraculous to the other people in 2D that he got out without breaking the circle? So think of similar miracles someone in a higher dimension can perform on us?

Ive thought a lot about this. Its very unsettling. The possibilities are unending. Think about this – we believe that our Earth is rotating and revolving around the Sun. What if someone from a higher dimension who can see it from outside in its entirety tells us that the Earth is actually stationary and it is everything else that is moving? Yeah, I know this is far-fetched :) But really, what if all our beliefs are false?

That’s anyways happening now - Space is flat is turning out to be a baseless assumption – we now find it more likely to be curved. Moreover, the shortest distance between two points need not be a straight line. It could be an interstellar chasm. Oh, the possibilities….

Anyhow, the laws of nature formulated on Earth seem counter-intuitive since they are fragmented and disparate, almost inelegant I would say. And by saying this, I mean absolutely no disrespect to all the brilliant theoretical physicists who spent their lives discovering and formulating them. All I am saying is that it seems as if they are the parts of a jigsaw puzzle which even after pieced together completely makes no sense. And that’s supposed to be the beauty of the fourth dimension - the laws have “space” to fit there and that one glorifying equation can emerge.

But speaking of nature, I think man is unnatural. This is my personal opinion – because as we know, nature always abhors a gradient but man totally thrives on it.

Mindsweeper

I think in lines. Every single thought in my mind, especially when I am weighing stuff  or envisioning a process manifests as lines and more irritatingly, levels. Sometimes spaces and areas.

For example, lets say someone wants to get over an addiction which was harmful, say smoking. Now the results of doing that will be:

+ for results that reflect positively.

- for bad or the opposite, where the damage is being undone and therefore not very pretty.

+ - (during initial days) 

++ --

+++ ---

++++ ----

+++++ -----

(Lets say this is the equivalent of center, notice how the bad shows up at its worst sometime in the middle, sometimes overpowering the positives). Then it kinda recedes.

++++++ ----

+++++++ ---

++++++++ --

+++++++++ -

 Ok now, if the person starts smoking or drinking coffee or whatever again, it'll be like this...

 - ++++++++++

--++++++++++

---++++++++++

----+++++++++

------++++++++

As if he/ she is new at it...U get it? Even if not so symmetric,  you get what me saying?  Atleast, this is what I think it is. So the figure my mind conjures up about de-addiction is something like this, which you have to work at backwards.

This is really how my mind sees stuff around me. Even thoughts I see as similar levels depending on how  much a person reflects:(

When I view two things in conjunction, the lines change to areas, as if they are spray painted...and the movement is sweeping...Sometimes I wish I could break out of this maze, and think in other pictures or shapes or abstract stuff or whatever - see I cant even imagine too many options here:(

With this tendency , I wonder what other glorious inner-eye visions I may be missing...sigh !!!

Ok, I think I am babbling incoherently now, so I'll stop.

What could it be now?

My fave word is aw! Yup I know its not a word, but I love saying it, and not in a good way :)...Sting rocks, he really does. Be still my beating heart is all I tell myself these days, thanks to him :) But not the way he says it though...more like..be still (duh? do you need to say it)....my beating heart (seriously? no kidding???)...

Memo: I must avoid happy couples and if possible, happy people

Gawd...I am hopelessly inarticulate today....what do you say?

You might as well say no comments, cos I aint letting you anyway....

Poetry in motion

Me actually made a praxinoscope yesterday. It was on my "to do" list. Though what I made is far from perfect, its a start.

Things you need:

1. A stable light source - a good yellow lamp works the best. But remove the shade, dont let it cast shadows.
2. A disc - actually the lid of any round box will do. Dont get too big a disc, a radius of  7-8 cms is good. This disc should be fixed at a height so that the lamp shines directly on it from the side  perpendicular to where you will view it. Fix it at a height of atleast 15 cms. The above disc should be freely rotating - I used a candle stand for fixing the disc since it has a sharp pointed edge and a decent base to support it.

3. A shiny (preferably made of mirror) cylinder, that should be fixed at the centre of the disc. This is the most important component. While choosing this, try placing it on any picture and see if you like the reflection of the picture on the cylinder. This is how your "film" will look eventually :). Of course a partitioned cylinder like the one in the attached pic works the best, but I couldn't find one. Also, the cylinder in this pic is short, mine was longer and therefore the image was kinda distorted. The radius of the cylinder should be 3-4 cms. The wider the better actually. But it should not be less than 1/3rd your disc radius. The cylinder should NOT rotate, only the disc should. Glue it if you must, but it shouldn't rotate, ok? The rotating disc in the pic is not flat, but I would advise a flat one.

4. Good white paper that is cut in a circle, the shape of the disc minus cylinder. Doing this is tough but make many of these. You'll need them :). Make a slit to fix it easily on the disc, around the cylinder.

5. A screen to view your "motion film" :) This can be done in many innovative ways, the easiest being  a card board with the desired sized rectangle cut out of it. You have to view your "film" through this rectangle, you get it? Alternatively, you can have a paper screen, but then you have to ensure that the light falls on the screen, and ONLY the image is projected on it. You could use the cardboard cutout for this. I wanted a mirror screen but it clashed horribly with the cylinder. If you get this right, tell me how you did it ok?

6. Divide the paper disc into equal parts with a thin, very light pencil. I would suggest 12 parts, 3 in each quadrant.

7. Now you can start drawing what you want to see on the paper disc. I was not very ambitious since my sketching skills are questionable so I drew a ball going up and down. You could download animation strips too. But you should envisage the various transitions between the beginning and the end of your film, and then choose the number of partitions in each quadrant. But please make sure its equally spaced and even. Something like this pic on the right. Also, the height of your pic matters a LOT. Dont draw along the full length available. See how it looks on the cylinder before deciding this, ok? I used colors, but black and white looks really pretty :)

So you now place the paper disc with your drawing on the rotating disc and switch on the light.  Swirl the disc and look at the animated reflection on the cylinder through your cardboard cut-out and hopefully, you'll be as thrilled as I was :)

Weekend Seminar

"Seminar on ancient and modern legal system in India" may sound dry, but thats how I spent the last weekend, a really nice one in a long long time... Well, it was actually organised by my family and I decided to go because the guest list was truly intimidating and I couldnt believe that so many distinguished men of such intellectual caliber and academic stature could be gathered in one room.

With every person who arrived, I just couldn't contain my awe and excitement. These were men I used to always read about and admire and longed to be like them. I know I sound like a kid, but I cant help  it...Take a peek at this pic of  moderators:) I had to pinch myself to be sure I wasnt dreaming, really :) Its unbelievable - how humble they are in person given how much they've achieved.

Of course, my role in the seminar was limited to dressing up and smiling at everyone and I took notes, which made everyone think that I was a journalist, but whatever..

I became happier with every session....I love it when people talk sense and to the point, and when it is interspersed with good humor...well !!!......and of course lots of things to think about...for instance,

- Why are courts called courts of law and not courts of justice?Food for thought....

- All crime has any of these 3 causes - fight for a woman/ man, revenge, money.

- Lots of random interesting facts - for instance, in the ancient Indian law system, we have 12 types of sons, but in the modern system, we have only 2...and stuff like that which showed how thinking has changed....
- When a person becomes a  sanyasi (monk) officially, he is considered dead according to law. Though the lawmakers must have their reasons, I think thats messed up.
- And I also got to witness really heated debates, but conducted in a most gentlemanly and becoming manner..and picked up lots of lessons on how to put things across...for instance, one of the judges said "You say I am confusing?"...and pat came the reply from the other judge " I didnt say you are confusing, I said we are getting confused"...

Really nice, I tell you,...

And oh, the scholars of law, we had so many from different universities...and the level of discussion was truly commendable...it was clear that most of the people there had spent a lot of time thinking about things other than the mundane,.....oh and no clichés , no old chestnut jokes or platitudes...it was a welcome change :)

I could write pages about all I learnt, but I'll spare you :) All in all, well-spent two days...I really needed it...it was comforting, in a way...

Is everything ok?

On a sleepy sunday afternoon last weekend, as I lay reading, I decided to ....you wont believe it...meditate...

Now call it wishful thinking or whatever, but I did...and heres where it took me....

As I closed my eyes, I became aware of the noise of the traffic, a TV blaring in someone's house and the  peaceful breathing of my Grandma, who was also sleeping in the room...

Me: Oh no, how can you meditate in all this noise?

Me: Hey it is ok, soon it wont bother you, you wont even hear it...

Me: Thats rubbish... noise is not ok because with it, you'll never get to the stage where you cant hear it...

Me: You dope, don't make excuses, you know its ok...

Me: Oh? Anything is ok is it?

Me: Everything is ok

Me: Everything is ok?

Me: Everything is ok....

Me: Everything is ok....

Me: Is "Everything is ok" ok?

Me: Is "Is "everything is ok" ok" ok?

Yes, because everything is ok, remember? Alert readers will spot that although the second question is not answered, the argument is totally circular and it gets bigger and bigger. If you code this line of  thought into a C program or something, you will get a sort of an increasing spiral......try it and see...some meditation it was!!!

Takes you to dizzy heights before you snap out of it.....

Oh..and the noise...totally forgotten....

While I sleep

Take a look at this picture. I could look at it forever...It is from the Japanese movie Dreams that I came across which is a beautiful collection of the dreams the director had during various stages of his life. I urge anyone who reads this blogpost to check out the film. The movie is a collection of 8 short dreams and every dream is an experience, intricately woven with emotions and instincts most fundamental and encased beautifully within wondrous sights and experiences , oscillating between inner struggle and peace, hope and despair, love and hate, fear of existence and non-being, our beliefs and intuition and counter-intuition, I could go on and on and on - If you believe in souls, then this one will touch your soul, for you will be forced to acknowledge how much there is that you don't know what you don't know (about yourself). Even if I write pages, I don't think I can do justice to the movie. I also think that each person will get something different out of it, depending on their levels of thought.

Now I must admit that my dreams are a HUGE part of my life. Some people dont dream much but I am not one of them. I dream almost every night. They are scary, funny, thought-provoking, real, absurd...the works. The way I face myself and my life through dreams , I can never do otherwise. I'll bet I dream at least 2-3 hours each night and I invariably remember what I dream. And somethings, like words I never knew but dreamed of, people whose names I learnt in my dreams, things I never knew existed but dreamt of..I even saw a color that I couldn't recognise...Am not able to remember how it looked, much as I try :( ...I cant explain how (maybe the theory that subconscious is actively learning and feeds into your conscious is true) but I can tell you the experience really shakes you. The way I see the people around me, the way I feel about them through the day, the things I hold dear, everything goes topsy-turvy and I feel I am seeing it from outside....

I sometimes feel I live a parallel life that comes alive when I sleep!

I am what I am?

A scary concept I recently read about - When we extend the theory of natural selection to ourselves, it throws up something that we should all be happy to hear - we are who we are only because it suits us the best. It even discounts a person's will by saying a person's subconcious will allow him to change himself only if it helps him survive better than before. So as per this theory, we needn't blame ourselves for not being able to change. Think about it - If a person is rude, it is because he will survive best by being rude. Ditto lazy, mean, dishonest, truthful, cheerful, kind, insensitive, absent-minded, crazy, shabby, neat-freak, pious, double-faced, rigid, open-minded etc. Food for thought indeed. And the Emergent state is stable which may/may not be desirable (to others), the operative word being stable here. The same argument as order/ survival as opposed to chaos/ disintegration even if it is not "good". Imagine if this was proved true - all our laws have to be repealed since theres no way we can have laws that threaten survival instincts that aid existence :) And all our judgements will disappear since we would give everyone equal credit for being who they are, and understand that they are because they cannot be anything else :) But hey, but its not totally foregone and being aware is definitely a way out. But what about those who can't allow themselves to be aware, under the same rule?