The Provincialism of America

I dont need to say more. Kipling took notes of america more than 100 years back in 1890 and I can say some things in his notes havent changed. The next time I visit the Golden Gate, I definitely shall remember the verse by Bret Harte

"Serene, indifferent to fate,
Thou sittest at the Western Gate;
Thou seest the white seas fold their tents,
Oh, warder of two continents;
Thou drawest all things, small and great,
To thee, beside the Western Gate."

And tommorow at Pier 39 our temple's ganesh would be immersed which would be quite a sight :)

Pulling Coffee

My microwave conked and suddenly I am challenged on how best to make coffee. I am not a big fan of these electric stoves plus they never distribute heat evenly and as quickly as the gas based ones but then I had only those. So I used them to make coffee, madras style by pulling it over and over.I was really satisfied not because of the taste but because of the process involved to get to the morning cup of coffee.

Anyways while I was savoring, as usual my subconscious retrieves something in the distant past. This time it was a jingle for Nestle Sunrise. I am not sure if the current day ads still carry the same jingle but had a beautiful rhythm sayin that if you meet folks then you can share taste of something like that. Suchitra Krishnamurthy happens to be in one of the ads and I have seen the rendition in 3 different languages and I love all of them.

Since this was last Friday, I drove over to Berkeley on Saturday, picked up an old mate and his girlfriend only to come back to a local cafe that was serving turkish coffee and persian ice cream.
Ads do work :)

Lit

I have been tagged on this by orthodoc

One book that changed my life: Dancing Naked in the Mind Field and The Name of the Rose

One book I have read more than once: Like OrthoDoc I am a big fan of Holmes and read it like thrice

One book I would want on a desert island: Midnight's Children

One book that made me laugh: The Great Indian Novel

One book that made me cry: Cats Cradle

One book that I wish had been written: Someone's Love story that I know.

One book I wish had never been written: Every book is worth writing but if you mean books that dont add value to the trees they are printed on, then there are a lot of books particularly self-help ones.

One book I am currently reading: Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

One book I have been meaning to read:Gravity's Rainbow

Now it not always necessary to spread the meme by specifying certain names so let me do a voluntary infection. Anyone reading this can be assumed as tagged if they are willing to answer the same in their blogs/typepads/spaces.

Of This and That

Every so often I have to leave the country to stay in the country. Basically I need to leave the US to submit my credentials to a consulate outside the US that I have some business staying here since I am a citizen of India and am here on a work permit. Now, I cannot wait till my later trip in India because the law says I need to have a valid passport/visa/work permit .Anyways to spare the torture I needed to go to a Canadian Consulate to get a visitor visa so that I can go to Canada and get my US visa stamp refreshed. This gave me an opportunity to leave the country for a couple of days.

I chose Vancouver, British Columbia for this purpose.You see the airport is nestled between coastal mountain ranges on one side and water on three sides. It was a spectacular sunset landing. I have always liked cities with a distinct character. If Jane Jacobs saw this city I was sure that she would have included a study in her book. Everytime I enter Canada, I can sense the european cultural values that these people kind of carry. At Midnight, I was hungry and found a falafel place that served warm samosas, falafel and a shawarma. It was run by a lebanese woman who told me that she reserves the worst for some folks in the world.

The next day as usual, the folks at the consulate were rude and kind of inorganic in the whole setting. Apart from that minor episode, I roamed about to see what else was in the offing. First off, I found this beautifully architected building which happened to be a public library where I devoured what I could find for the rest of the day stepping out only for food. Later in the evening I found another nice post office building sandwiched between theaters. Added a couple of stamps to my collection after a gap of 14 years. Theaters were sadly empty as no shows were scheduled.

I took the cheapest accomodation in the downtown which was kind of dingy and reminded me of Wilde's quote

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

I checked out the history and not surprisingly it was erected in 1910. While it had history behind it my mind was reeling under a movie I watched earlier called "Far Side of the Moon". The story was so tragico-comic that I had to wake up every hour or so before my appointment. So much for a smooth segue into sleep at a different place.

The next morning I checked out a local bookshop and I tell you if you are in Vancouver next time and you like reading its an absolute must that you visit this book store called "MacLeods" which is at the interesection of Richards and W Pender St. These guys practically have first editions of every famous books plus some archaic collections of works on a subject of your choice.

One easy way to size up a book store is to ask how many books they carry under the category of "Mathematical Fiction" (you know the ones like FlatLand and AFAIK the total number of books in the category is around 24) . To my surprise the host took the keys and showed me a way to another branch which is by appointment only (for serious researchers and the kind) and Bingo! I have added a new book called "The Thread" to my existing collection. It was so much fun to be at that place scented with the aroma that uniquely belongs to old books under humid conditions. Later in the evening I walked by the old gastown and tried to decipher the workings of the world's first steam powered clock(Obviously I failed).

There's a bunch of places I could have been but its terribly lonely to tour on those tour buses or simply do the touristy thing unless you have someone to talk to and enjoy with. So that might be one reason why I avoided the parks, suspension bridges and the likes. I regretted advancing my reservation to one day earlier without staying for the weekend. Oh Well!

Back Home, the pleasant thing was to be surprised when a customer sends you a thank you gift. Despite the accolades one might earn internally, an unplanned surprise move by someone shows something else. I remember when I was at grad school helping out a middle aged woman in the lab and the next day she made an apple pie and got it to the lab as a token of appreciation. I tell you these interesting gestures have a very positive reinforcement in me :)

Issueless

The furrowed brows,
The drained handshakes,
The empty laughter,
Magnesium burning in the sea water only to become glass,
The Shadowless,
The lack of tears and the swelling of loss,
The look of the beginning rather than the faded memory of less,
If I dont kill it now, it shall return again,
Oh ! Othello, Desdemona doesnt exist but in you dreams,
listening to the trumpet in the background rather than inviting the clarionet in the foreground,
You are a Hero when there are issues
and Nothing when there aren't any issues...

Bombay

In the wake of the recent blasts I was really concerned for my family and friends around in the city. Half fearing for the worst I called one by one and thank goodness things are okay with them. As soon as I hung up the last call I am okay and a normal person whistling my way away.

So all this proves my own belief that pain is nothing if it is not personal. Homage to those victims.

Fear and Trembling

If there were no eternal consciousness in a man,
if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power
which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great
and everything that is insignificant,
if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all
–what then would life be but despair?

If such were the case,
if there were no sacred bond which united mankind,
if one generation arose after another like the leafage in the forest,
if the one generation replaced the other like the song of birds in the forest,
if the human race passed through the world as the ship goes through the sea,
like the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless activity,
if an eternal oblivion were always lurking hungrily for its prey
and there was no power strong enough to wrest it from its maw
–how empty then and comfortless life would be!

Mr. MN: Please read this classic.

Ham

When I was a kid growing around Hyderabad I saw this standard issue blue background white font governement style board titled National Institute of Amateur Radio stuck inorganically around a fast developing community in Somajiguda. Since anything with the words"amateur", "dilettante" attract me like a moth to the flame, I checked them out to find out about this. But then there was paperwork involved with an examination to pass, etc. which took it off my list.

Now after 15 years, I am finally licensed by the FCC to operate on amateur radio bands with the call sign KI6EGH. All thanks to my co-worker called Mike Myers (Yeah! He shares the same quality of making you laugh and think at the same time) who introduced me to this hobby and getting me my first transceiver. Did you know that Rajiv Gandhi met Sonia over ham radio (as a precursor to this modern day chatting). ? I forgot their call signs.

One of the first internet chat services was called ICQ with "CQ" being radio code for calling anyone over RF.Any of you hams reading this can reach me over the 2 meter band (usually around the 144.93 MHz range).

So this converts my official status of pig to a ham :)

Of Castor & Pollux...

Hmm..Almost a month since my last posting and my social life looks as empty as hell. This problem of not thinking about one's folks' is the other end of the spectrum problem of crushing loneliness (in fact I think this end causes the other end to happen).better to have too much work than its alternative...have flown to east coast 2 times in the last 20 days and now on the road to LA..

I would like use my little space here to jot down all who matter the most to me but couldnt get to wish in time. [Drumrolls in the background]

Belated Returns of the Day P, Hope your first bday in marital bliss is well spent...

(Piano)

Happy Bday M..Sorry I cannot attend your wedding but wanted to let you know that I am happy for you and extend my welcome to her from the family..

Kiddo, Have a Jolly good time at the training and hopefully you are wiser by this birthday (relative to the last). You know the extent of my corporatization when I say throw the party and expense it to me..Either ways really glad hearing news about you from Pa.

(Pipli..)

Guthhi.I know your day loiters around the week of June 7-13 but not quite sure..See..I made your wish come true..All that alcohol has a memory loss aspect particularly when it comes to your bday.

(Special Trumpets playing the sine wave harmonics)

Mr. MN, As naturally as M follows N, you would be chasing some girls (either in reality or in dreams) on your day.I cant help with that but here's a thought that makes it easier.This is gonna be your last frickin day to be spent celibate. Either of 2 things happen and you know what they are..Sorry for harassing you over the web like this but as usual, my warm wishes bud!

(Bass Guital! Tchhhorus !)

Finally, the best of all, my mom. Here's wishing you health and happiness Ma..

(Orchestra!)

The TimeScale of the Mythic Indian Universe

* A lousy random rambling follows *

Calendars always held my fancy because of the way we strike out order of the chaos. Imagine the day when the sun first set and a caveman who missed the sun immediately blamed his next door neighbor for the debacle of sun setting (probably might have killed him for this crime as well). Then the next day when sun rises again probably he wouldnt congratulate his next door neighbor(remember, he is dead) and would have repented his deed thus marking the time/place for further oblations. So there is a need for calendar for one of these events.

* End of the lousy random rambling *

Well, anyways people want to remember events and things in a nice way. Since as one involved with computers we seek to attack a problem in general ways than in special ways, my thought begat a question as to whats the oldest thing one can remember? Or more generally whats the oldest memory of human civilization? Our legends, folklores, mythology and religious anecdotes. Each civilization has its own but I want to think about one which is in the Indian consciousness and the following comes from reading the myths of the hindus.

* Start of a Functional Theory *

A cycle (kalpa) is first defined as a single day in the life of a creator,(usually Brahma but thats not relevant here) which is also assigned as the lifetime of the milyway galaxy.The further breakdown of a cycle is established as being equivalent to 12,000 years of the gods.Now, this is interesting for the fact that the gods themselves are not supreme and subject to a higher accountability. The equivalence of 12,000 god-years is 4,320,000,000 earth-years. (In english that translates as four billion three hundred twenty million years and to put in context the solar system itself is currently estimated to be 4.54 billiong years.At the close of a day everything is resolved into chaos (pralaya). Slate Clean. When the creator wakes up and then does some accounting as to who goes into higher plane (beyond all 3 worlds) and then recreates all 3 worlds (only latent germ of neccesary stuff from the old is preserved for remanifestation). These 3 worlds have be populated with folks whose histories in the previous cycle deem them to be.
Apparently the night has to be equal to that of a day in the time frame of the creator for the above to ensue.
Now the most interesting question of who's watching the watcher. Namely, how is time distributed to the creator himself? This has the answer that our creator (who can never be known but aspects of him can be rediscovered) is assigned a 100 creator-years. At the end of this assigned time not only the three worlds, gods, men, all things are merged into the chaos but essentially the creator himself should self-destruct. This is called "maha-pralaya". This particular period lasts for another 100 creator-years when there will be a new creator and his new creation. The only forces are the causality from actions in the past and sometimes neccessity (which is orthogonal to reason and emotions). That is both evolution and involution are represented as neccesary but no logic is assigned to it. So far theses is the major alternations on a macro scale.

Now, consider the so called "minor" alternations in the day of the creator. A single day is composed of 14 manvantaras. (manu is the generic name for a teacher and antara is the time elapsed between sections). At the end of each section, as usual, the world is deluged swallowing continents and living beings.

Now for the further decomposition of the single day in the life of a creator into yugas.A "maha-yuga" equals a 1000 yuga cycles. A single yuga cycle can be decomposed into 4 parts as Satya,Treta, Dvapara and Kali. The first consists of one million seven hundred twenty-eight thousand (1,728,000) years., the second one million two hundred ninety-six thousand (1,296,000), the third eight hundred sixty-four thousand (864,000) and the last four hundred thirty-two thousand (432,000).

Lets see if the math adds up. A single yuga cycle equals 1,720,000+1,296,000+864,000+432,000 = 4,320,000. A thousand yugs equal a single kalpa so multiplying this number by 1000 gives us the earth years number exact. Atleast this sticks.

* End of Functional Theory *

If we were to abode by the above theory then currently the year is 2006. This is the 6006 year of Kaliyuga of the present maha-yuga (leaves us 425994 years more to go before we blow up). This "maha-yuga" is the 28th maha-yuga in the seventh manvantara of our kalpa.( for those interested in names, the presiding manu is Vaivasvata and the kalpa is called Varaha).A little more "recent" events to give a sense of where we are is that Mahabharata happened during Treta yuga and Ramayana in Dvapara.

Of if you prefer more chronological events, the birth of Brahma at the first kalpa out of a lotus (so we all know lotuses are older than Brahma :), the boar incarnation in the first, ganjendra moksham (elephant liberated from crocodile) in the fourth and the churning of the ocean in the sixth kalpa.

Phew! Fatboy slim said the same thing in much compressed format :)