Smile

Managed to sneak in some decent shots, despite overcast skies for most of the evening.



That's Venus, the Moon and Jupiter, left to right. This is the closest Venus has gotten to Jupiter in a while, I believe.

Field trip

10 00pm
It's cold. Im soggy and trolleying back home. The oh-so-pleasant sound of the auto-rickshaw's backside complements the high pitch ringing in my ears.

5 00 pm
' It'll rain again man! Come ra, we'll take umbrella.'
'Mad eh?! It wont rain come.'
'Anyway you like to get wet no, gay.'

6 00 pm
'Come, we'll walk ra. Only 2 minutes.'

6 30 pm
'Only ten minutes more.'

AAAAHH!!!

A "2-minute walk" afterward, having braved the weather and terrain through godonlyknowswhere-land, the air told us we were finally there. ( Kind of like the Pandavas and dog story, the elements having depleted our numbers to 4, from the original 11.)

The extremely 'tight' security insisted I kept my soldering iron outside. (Unbelievable, I say!)
Anyway, when I was finally inside, iron and all, I was greeted by a voice that sounded like its owner had caught gangrene and lost hope. The poilcemen (stationed at "strategic" locations) would have probably done him (and the rest of us) a favour putting him down.

The stage was inhabted mostly by a bunch of ape-like creatures, clearly at the tribal stage of their evolution. Their leader,presumably, seemed particularly adept at making jungle noises and movements, sometimes provoking a section of the crowd to mimic.
Bushmen Frenzy!

SHOOT THEM ALL!!

More rain and more tribes prompty led us to the exit.

' It sucked! But tell everyone it was damn good, okay!
Hihikhihikhihikhihi!!! '

' Yea man...Hehehehe... otherwise rape only ra...'

'Hihikhihikhihikhihi!!! But it was fun man.'

10 00 pm
It's cold. Im soggy and trolleying back home. The oh-so-pleasant sound of the auto-rickshaw's backside complements the high pitch ringing in my ears.

'I wonder how long it will be before my extremities start falling off.'

O, Human Karma!

Qweeeeeeee!
Like the call of a nightingale
Only worse
Bleed in the nose
(And the eardrum).

Enters belly
Follows human
Fat-fingered
Abominable snowman
(Sans snow).

Drone
Unfinishing
(Un)like a bee's
A wounded beast
(Pooh at best).

Stubby arms wave
Unfinishing
Powerful
Tension in the air
(And elsewhere).

Enters boredom
Lots of
Drives most to vice
Amidst a sea of slouched backs
(Unfinishing).

Vex

Unsettling,
Not knowing where things are.
Knowing they're not where they're supposed to be.
Worse,
Knowing they're where they're not supposed to be.
Torment.

Conflicting Minds

We have, from time immemorial, been mystified by the unexplained. Dreams have always fascinated me, from my childhood days; some of them deathly frightening, others wonderfully pleasurable.

One of the earliest dreams I can remember having was one where I was a construction worker being devoured by an oversized smelly Shrek-like creature (Not friendly). And as one would expect, I didn't like the idea of being eaten alive, and woke up pretty unnerved. But that was not the last I would see of Sir Reeksalot. He did visit again, a little under half a dozen times between then and now, and what interests me is that every time (after the first), I was able to control the dream and prevent the monster from detaching my head from the rest of me, one way or another.

A dream is the battle between the conscious and the subconscious. This is something I would like to call " The Theory of Conflicting Minds ".
The subconscious is a sick kid and starts it, and throwing up anything it eats. The conscious is a janitor. At some point, it realizes that the floor is too puked up, and decides to clean up. Conflict. Two options lie ahead.

Option 1 : Squeaky clean
C : Wake up! This is weird.
S : [Alt-F4]
C : Oh, that was just a dream.

Option 2 : Perpetual Filth
C : This is a dream! Wake u... No wait, this seems interesting!
(S happily continues dreaming, oblivious to C's presence)
C : This sucks. I'm going in!
(C butts in; overrides S. S quickly regains control. But the damage has already been done.
C continues observing.)

Option 1 is what happens most of the time. Janitor cleans up; sends the kid back home.

Option 2, though, delivers infinite possibilities. Janitor cleans every now and then (or chooses to watch from a distance and not get his hands dirty), kid pukes every now and then. A dream can be controlled in bits and pieces, and although the level of control is minuscule, it makes a world of difference.

Try it, it's an exhilarating rush!
My sympathies to those unfortunates who sleep dreamlessly.

Care for a shave gov'neh?

Barbers are the most powerful people on the planet.
Luckily for you and me, they're merciful.

On Pets

I have often been asked, "Are you a cat person or a dog peron?" .

First of all, my head makes it sound something like, " Are you a batman or a spiderman?", which sends me in an instant to a state whacky laughter, while the more socially aceptable side of me tries to wrestle with my muscles, making me look like a confused retard more than anything else.
Secondly, and more importantly, the question invariably pops into my head, " Why would anyone be a cat person?"

Dogs kick cat-butt on most grounds.
I can conclude just this about cat lovers: Either they're scared of dogs, or they don't like that canines can be a little unclean, or they're plain queer and prefer to have thankless creatures as pets.

Whacking day

This is about a particularly miserable day at IISc.

Come quick!
The Dark Lord does beckon.
Relocate your slothful self.
Mercy he shall show today, I reckon.

Chapter one
Idiots! What have you done?!
Shabby comebacks,
Bruised ego.
(Mumble mumble)
Off with their heads!

Persons few,
(Precisely two)
Thou asketh who they be?
Can't say. Won't dare!
Alright here's a hint:
One of them's a friend of someone who's a friend of me.

A day killed,
Well, half at least
Meandering, disguised mostly,
Away from watchful eyes.

Noon comes, not alone though.
Brings Him to us for good
And come with Him does His minion,
Watching, waiting,
Ready to strike with taunting tongue.

Crack! Crack of the whip.
A forked tongue tastes the air,
"He treats you well",
The minion doth quip.

Noxious fumes, vision spiralling.
'A drink would do good, perhaps'

Deluded thought, that might have been,
Tasted not-so-bad, but it still stings!
Sardonic snigger, sadistic.
Nearly choked, he did!
Hope, momentary deception
"Slave away!", the Dark Lord sings.

The sun has gone down,
'Tis time to rest,
Lest the Devil
Puts them to another test.

Pleading tones.
Relentless scoff.
(With orders for next morn.)
And as his slaves, obey they must.

And obey they will, (willingly almost)
And go to sleep.
For know do they,
(Like most today,)
That as they sow
So will they reap.

Quote unquote

Reductio ad absurdum

Reductio ad absurdum, Lat. : Reduction to the absurd

The classic proof by contradiction. The following proves that the universe may not exist.
Caution: Not for the weak-minded.

A thought experiment:


Let the universe exist, and let us exist in it.

• Consider two human beings : specimen 'A' , that can distinguish between colours the way "normal" humans are expected to, and specimen 'B' who, from birth, sees only in shades of "grey", but can nevertheless, differentiate between colours from the shade of "grey" that he perceives. Note that B does not know what colour would look like to A, and has no way of finding out without swapping memories, and thus assumes that A sees as he does. Vice- versa. Now, present each of them with a colour, say "blue", and ask them what colour it is. Each will say blue, despite the fact that their perceptions are completely different!(If you don't follow, start with a human being and a talking dog.)
  

• Extending this to beings in general, it is possible, that each of us would see the colour blue differently, but would still call it blue. That being said, it is possible that the universe looks different to each of us, just that when we describe it in a common language, descriptions by different people may be coherent despite a possible incoherence in perception.

• Let me take the same argument and push it over the boundaries of colour, and into those of sight in general. And then to the other four senses. Therefore, the universe might be perceived differently by different observers.

• Now, let us go back to the assumption that the universe exists and we live in it. Being inhabitants of the same universe, we must all receive the same stimuli. And since there can be an infinitely large number of observers, there can thus be infinitely large number of perceptions. (One for each observer at the least.)

• Now, we have an event( the existence of the universe), and an infinite number of possible observations (an infinite number of observers with as many distinct perceptions of the universe). Basic probability kicks in: the probability of any one observation being true is zero, and since there are infinite possible disinct observations, none of them are true. This leads us to the conclusion that the event may never happen, the event in this case being the existence of the universe. ( I use the word "may" because the argument pivots on whether different observers have different perceptions.)
  

We can now make the statement : It is possible that the universe does not exist,which contradicts our initial assumption. Hence, our assumption must be incorrect.

Reductio ad absurdum, Lat :Reduction to the absurd

Hence, there is a finite probability that the universe does not exist. (And neither do we!).

Quad erad demonstratum.

Monkeys on a tree

Well, there are only so many things that a guy can do during a two-and-a-half month long vacation, and here he is, writing his first web log(or blog, but I bet a lot of you didn't know that!) entry.

And the reason I'm here is, hmm... you could say it's primarily because a lot of the people I know are here, plus I hear that writing is good for you! It's funny how people who hang around together end up doing the same things even when they're not really hanging around.

Ever observed a tree of monkeys? They all look the same and seem to be doing the same things. Monkey see, monkey do. What's interesting is that when one of the monkeys decides to be a little bold, and jumps on to another tree, the other monkeys stare at it for a while, with this look of disbelief on their hairy faces, probably wondering, "What the heck is this one doing?". After some ooh-aah, the second boldest monkey decides it might be worth it and jumps across.
Monkey see, monkey do. Ten minutes later, all the monkeys have switched trees, leaving the first tree almost bare.

Three inferences:
1) Most monkeys are incapable of doing things without another monkey to guide.
2) Monkeys don't like to be alone on their trees, or jump trees alone.
3) Humans are remarkably like monkeys.

Kudos to the first monkey to jump the tree!

No animals were hurt in the production of this text.