Meeting of infinities ..

Its highly impossible to prove each and everything in the world and whatever you consider to be absolutely true is derived from certain assumptions which are just assumptions – universally accepted truths without proofs also called as “axioms” . And Godel proved that , our maths however you expand it ,it will always be incomplete.

For a long time I was thinking about how humans got used to counting and in my opinion it was the root of all good and bad in the universe for quantification aids comparison. And very recently when I heard that in complex numbers there is only one infinity unlike the two infinities on either side of zero, a crazy thought stuck me. That was whether its possible for the positive and negative infinities to meet. Infinity in itself is not a number but a notation to denote the extreme and there is all kinds of wild play with it. But lets not get in to it.  And for a moment pretend that the its true that the infinities meet and I will show you something cute.

If the infinities meet, then when you get to  the extreme on one end ,you will also be the extreme of other end. Like when you think its the end of the world, it will also be the point where the world started. That is your distant future is also the distant past. And if you earn a lot and keep accumulating it and count it till infinity,you will end up to the other extreme where its dearth poverty. So in that world where infinities meet, no one will dare to touch the extremes. That’s a sane world isn’t? Is it what the philosophers and the enlightened souls say that time is an illusion and the world is unbounded?

And lets go in search of patterns. Day and night are extremes of darkness and light and they do meet twice a day which I feel is the meeting of infinities. But given our knowledge about the previous instance we are able to distinguish on whether its a dusk or dawn. Assume that our memory fails us and twice a day we will be wondering whether its going to be day or  night after 10 minutes in that time of day where darkness and light co-exist. The flaw with this pattern is that unlike our meeting of maximums, here the meeting point happens when both darkness and light are at their minimums.

The Big Bang theory (like our infinity axiom its also just a belief)  also says the universe expands and contracts periodically. That sounds similar to the day-night rotations. In all rotations every point is repeated after a certain interval and hence the same point repeats infinetly and you  unless you have a counter counting it, you cant differentiate it. We are here to count the day-night oscillations, hence the calendars but for the other heavenly things our life time and knowledge exhausts before we can count it. So we are unaware of this meeting point of the infinity:) or atleast you can neither prove it disprove it.

And long back when were in the caves without any languages almost all humans would have had a universal way to communicate which is purely out of instincts. But slowly language evolved and due to physical isolation different languages evolved and it became difficult for people living in different regions to communicate with each other. There were chaos, wars,discrimination because of it. Now given the internet and globalization,its highly possible that one language like English may emerge as a language known all over the world (Like english.. and possible..and not any sooner ..in a very distant future) and then the whole world is again able to communicate with each other like the way they started. So they arent exactly the same but still they share the same property and they indicate a similar point on the circle.

Let me stop the fantasies here. Now for something real. Have you observed the north pole and south pole on a flat map and you see how far they are. But assume if you standing on a north pole and you fall on  a never ending pit. You will be in the south pole in a while! Fantasizing about such surreal things is like falling in such non-existent pit. So the so called sane guys take the pain to fly across the surface of the earth spending days instead of falling across pits which could take them there in seconds:)!

 Whilst the infinities meet or not, what I can say is mathematics is the base of our understanding of the world, or we understand the world through maths. Thats true not just for the scientist souls but for everyone. If you think not try removing maths from your thinking and see how incomplete the world is. Atleast for that sake they wouldn’t let the infinities meet..!

English Vinglish – That doesnt matter!

Whatever you think is that which makes you feel inferior or superior over some one, probably that doesnt matter. Because once upon a time you didn’t posses what you posses now and if you wish you can posses what you want to possess if you work towards it. So it doesnt matter and it isnt right to grade people in terms of their wealth intellectual or material.  — This is what I interpreted from  this happy vappy movie on how a conservative house wife who was tormented for her lack of fluency in english  lands in Newyork and learns english in 21 days!

The story is a one-liner and could have been boring had it either went over board on emotions or surreal fun. But its within control and I felt totally  unconscious about everything else for two hours. This isnt a review but a recap of how  and what I felt during the movie. So if you are reading this be prepared to be bored:!.   I loved the way it started, with the lead lady waking up to make a coffee and consuming a newspaper with it.  Given that I am already starved without south indian food, the first few scenes kept my taste buds yearn by being inside the kitchen most of the time. Yes Sashi is that home-maker who spends most of her time in kitchen, but not your average house wife. Because she makes laddus and she delivers it herself to various house holds.How sweet!!!!! And I should introduce you Sagar the cute little kid and an another bubbly yet made to dislike sister. These new age kids and her husband love Sashi but that doesnt stop them from looking down on her since she cant speak English – the mercedz of  todays world.

It so happens that they have a relative who is getting married in new york and Sashi flies in leaving her family to NYC. Boy, I was really as worried as Sashi to learn that Sagar isnt going to be in the movie for some time.  But truly to be somewhere without knowing their language is a unique experience. It’s as if that everything around you has lost value all of a sudden since you cant communicate.  Those struggles were captured with a comical overtone, but I have seen people suffering and I have suffered at times. [Even now, I am watching a movie in a language which I dont understand!]

Sashi has an harrowing experience in a coffee shop and she spots an ad on a bus to learn english in 4 weeks. This is how you expect the screen to be played given that her total stay is only for five weeks:)!- Well played. She takes that decision to enroll in the class without informing anyone in the household. Every outing is an adventure in a new place and more so when you dont understand the signs and talks around you. So every right move brings in a lot of confidence and brightens one up. Sridevi has emoted this exceedingly well and her face speaks of the tiny yet big conquests she makes in the battle of her own. She finds the class and the class is funny enough [Man it contains a software engineer who doesnt know to speak english? ]. I could recollect lot of lighter moments from that English class, as if I have attended the course on my own.

Its not possible to learn a language in 21 days and even the director knows it but its a movie and we ought to give some creative freedom. Nevertheless in lot of scenes , I could see how difficult it is to explain something very simple to someone who hasnt known it . Language is inherently simple and hence complex to learn it. Acquisition of language  happens in an unconscious mode and it was evident when Sashi makes an order without her conscience knowing it in the cafe.

Coming back to the class/movie, the characters were all very supportive to the script and takes the one-liner forward with ease and fun. There were emotions and indeed it reaches the top when you learn that Sashi is going to skip her final exam with family commitments taking the front seat. The french guy’s lopsided love , the guard who waves in the metro station, the teacher who wishes his students to succeed in-spite of knowing their limitations, the niece who supports Sashi with her secretive classes and many more .. were all made and build up to that moment where Sashi sparkles. Along with them its nice for us to applaud and shed some tears when Sashi makes a toast with intense message in English during the climax scene. And like Sashis language, the message is also very simple. Dont rate people and spoil the fun of life!

“Dont forget to make a family of your own. In this otherwise big world, family is  the way to make a little world of your own. Some days you feel less and some days the other feels less. Help each other. And when no one helps you help yourself. No one is better in helping you than yourself. When you help yourself, you return back feeling equal…..!” Wow Man I cringed to pay 300 bucks for a movie but this one speech was worth it!

May be its extra larger than life, but its a movie about life if you could get the cues right. Balki has a trademark and its ticks  with Mrs.Balki to. Happy Vappy movie! I would remember this first movie outing in Delhi for a very long time:)! During the interval when the lights came on, I found almost the entire row next to me was filled with kids and they were all shouting to get their snacks!! Watching them and the movie made my day!

Reliving life through replaying music

When I was in my teens I was indifferent to music and even one of my relative questioned me whether I am really going to “college” for lack of apathy towards music. Everyone loves music and everyone loves the movies and music that got released during their “college days” more than anything. To put it this evolutionary terms everyone loves what they did during their ‘puberty’! Not not just the physical parts but also the mental machine inside gets  developed during these years.  And with enough time in our hands we resort to  music to  amuse ourselves during our college days. We repeat that which feels good with music, because its economical to do so both in terms of cost and time. When you repeat your favourite song,  the heavy working mental machine naturally thinks about a lot of other things too (your favourite moments, your favourite sight!, your conquests, your defeats). And those moments gets ‘music’ stamped. When I hear a song from Anbe Sivam, it not only reminds me of my insecure movie outing but also gives me a feel of how I felt then. Now thats awesome when you can feel any of your old feelings.!

When you are listening to  music and when the music overtakes you, you are not just hearing it,but feeling it.For few it might be the sound which excites them, they attach various emotions for the different frequencies of sound. When I was a kid I enjoyed those songs that sounded beautiful without knowing or bothering about the meaning of the song. The tune was an abstraction for joy and I was happy saying “Dingu donngu rabbapoo…”! But theres more to it, songs in general and ‘tamil’ in particular  are very intense with lot of innuendos and imageries, most of which can be interpreted in different ways depending upon your interest  and inclination. It took me some years, but thanks to Thamarai I discovered it, Her lines are  simple yet packed in them complex imageries..

நீரே இல்லா பாலையில் நின்று பெய்யும் மழை .. [You are that rain which stops and pours over a desert!] . Now the magic is its just very generic. You can choose what you want to have as your desert and rain. And you are sure to remember that rainfall forever in life. It can be taken to reflect that random glance of a diva or it can even be used to model the occasional good work you get to do at work. Thats just to give you the range of imageries which can be fitted in to that equation[Mm… yes I learn maths!] . You may grow up and crush your crushes, but that song always reminds you that innocent and beautiful liking you have carried around. Its a moment of reflection, where your past thoughts are mirrored to your current self. You can look into yourself through some music. Can I call it a mirror for it shows what you are and not what it is?!

What adds more meaning to the song is the people/things around it. That song in the tour, the batch song , or that lullaby which you were tuned to as a child they have their significance for reasons beyond the content of the song. When such songs are replayed the mind pulls the whole bunch of memories associated with those moments and makes you relive them. Conditions apply: This works well when you are relaxed and not when you want to relax through music.

Songs work, because they are made to remember and we attach with them what we want to remember. Its more like a acronym for otherwise difficult details which you wanted to store. I personally can track my life after 20 with Gautam-Thamarai songs.  I didnt even know them, but only their works during the early stages. “மஞ்சள் வெயில் மாலையில்லே..” was the first imagery which tricked me. I saw more than words in to them and there is no looking back from that moment.  Much of human learning happens through finding analogies and through songs its more fun.Words like “ஏழு ஸ்வரங்களுக்குள் எத்தனை பாடல்கள் ? ..” can even explain the periodic table to you.

And I didnt heed to music earlier in my life , because music and most art for that reason is all about love/romance. I was with a opinion of what use this can be if I cant feel what it describes. Later as I grew up I understood that love isnt only meant for the man-woo-woman , but can be felt in all relationships.Not restricted to persons, all of what you do is out of love! But the man-woman relationship dominates that space and has an inexplicable mystery around it. Hence it stands more as a representation and abstraction for “Love” and the artists express themselves using it.

I loved the passion in beatles, you can feel the love in each and every word of it. And the movie “I am Sam..” uses it very well to describe the love of a dad for a little girl. The same songs can be used  for your honeymoon too:)! It takes a while to read a passage or look at an art but music is instantaneous.

Music definitely has a healing quotient  for it  works more close to the workings of your neurons.The feeling is felt even before its described. I often say to myself that our species could have been named as “Feeling beings” rather than human beings ! Music is a faster and closer expression of love!  Add some music in your life and it will enhance the love in whatever you do. Not only that you can replay your present in future.

I may not be technically sound in music, but I have got acquainted with the joys of it to an extent ‘good enough’ to surprise that relative of mine who made that comment!