The collection of a Libran's honest thoughts about life, religion, politics, movies, music, India, Indians, culture, psychology, philosophy, zodiac and a lot of other topics that left an impact in him!
Every patriotic Indian would be extremely happy today as India's mission to reach the moon is a success and the tricolor flag now adorns the moon. It is a moment of pride to the Indian scientists and quite obviously another feather in the cap to the subcontinent.
Without a greatly organized Government, without the state-of-the-art infrastructure, without getting much help from other countries, India has crossed this milestone which in my view is a remarkable achievement. Let the success story continue and let the 'developing' crap come to an end bringing us to the dawn we have been expecting for years together. Jai Hind!
The Large Hardon Collider (LHC) has been the talk of the town for quite a while now, at least among the educated mass. An extremely simplified explanation of this experiment is that it is an effort by a bunch of nerds to identify ('try to identify' to be more precise) what has been happening after the big-bang. So what the hell is big-bang? That is the way most of these nerds would like to explain how the universe came to a state it is in, today. One particle of extreme energy and density exploded (the explosion is called the big bang) and poof came the elements in this universe. Text books that were prescribed to me back in the higher sec days used to tell that this theory is intended to explain the creation of the universe. But actually there is no theory till date that explains how the universe was created! These theories rather assume that 'something' existed to begin with and then they explain what could've happened in that 'something' that resulted in the evolution of this universe. Okay... enough on the theories part! Let me get to the point that I wanted to get to... :)
As much as I appreciate the efforts by the scientists to really know and understand what happened/happens in this universe, IMHO these experiments eat up way too much funds. When millions of fellow humans are dying out of hunger, poverty, thirst and malnutrition every year, spending billions of dollars on experimentation and research seems really weird. People who were ready to spend so much money just to know how universe was when it first came into existence are not ready to spend as much to make sure none in the world dies for the want of food. In a way, aren't these 'developed' nations responsible for the underdeveloped status of African and Asian countries? Isn't their past jingoism responsible for the extreme underpricing of the African, Asian currencies in the international market today? But I'd partly agree with people who say "Yeah! It's my buck. I decide how to spend it" because as much as it doesn't make sense in the humanitarian view, it does make sense at least from a commercial and practical point of view. So let me set aside the countries with surplus budgets for now.
India as everyone knows has never seen a surplus budget in the recent past and when I see that India has offered 1000+ crores (1 Crore = 10 Million) for this LHC, I was dumbfounded to say the least. We don't have sufficient power to keep our houses bright. We have a considerable chunk of the population that earns well below 10K a year. We are running deficit for the past 50+ years. The infrastructure is horrible to say the least. But we are offering 1000+ crores to know how the universe was when it came into existence!!! Reminds me of a comic quote in Tamizh - "Pullayaarae perucchaali la paoikirukkaaru... Poosaarikki bullettu kaekkudhaa!!". I guess you could make out what that could mean based on the previous statements! :)
This is not a post on Darwin's theory though it is a derivative of the theory. Darwin indeed did a great job in analysis of the process of evolution. Imagine the years it has taken for the human race to find out this naive reality* or to re-discover this reality, to be more precise. Though there are so many attributes that Darwin explained, I like one part the most - "the survival of the fittest". He goes a step further and defines what is fitness in his own words.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change"
If we try to re-define the definition given in 1859 to the current world, what would characterize a 'fit' individual? To be frank, the thought scares me. Can you smile on the front and stab from behind? You are fit! Can you get all the affection, care and advantage from someone and cut his throat with blood as cold as ice? You are fit too! Can you wait for the right time to hit the person who trusted you so much and hit straight at his weakness without the slightest hesitation in mind? You are the hero of 2008! What kind of society have we developed? What kind of believes have we developed? Have we really 'evolved' to lose all the happiness that our ancestors had? Million thoughts cross my mind before I wink.
Perhaps this process of evolution (towards artificiality) is irresistible in a system and that is why the orchestrator decides to pull down the curtains once in a while and set things back to the starting position just like a kid playing with a toy-train places it back where it started, to avoid it from getting derailed. After all if we (mortals) worry so much about ecology, ecosystems and ozone layers which are nothing more than paintings drawn by our mind with varying clarity and ambiance; the creator who made the magic happen, the eternal energy that man is unable to get to, and the driving force that keeps life going, has to think about it. Isn't it?! Though I hate Kamal for a lot of his personal traits, I couldn't help quoting a line from one of my all time favorite movies 'Anbe Sivam'.
"Only when it goes beyond comprehension, we call it God!"
How true...
* I know that certain conservatives still consider the theory to be false. But in my honest opinion, I strongly believe (as many others do) that the theory is a reality. Further as a practicing Hindu, I trust in what the religion symbolizes. Right from Dasavathara to animal-human forms of God; the religion portrays the theory of evolution all through. See video below for a sample and I'll come up with a separate post on this pretty soon!
As I mentioned in my previous post, Dasavatharam was yet another ordinary movie in my view and honestly it doesn't deserve a second post. But when Kamal fans start extapolating its greatness especially with respect to chaos theory, butterfly effect and Kamal's genius in closely knitting these into the story line, it is my duty to convey whatever I felt on those lines.
To begin with, what is chaos theory and what is butterfly effect? If you are too good at Maths and equations/scientific notions are everything for you, you should be able to comprehend the wiki definitions of chaos theory and buttefly effect. But if you are a layman like me, the illustration of this concept is pretty simple. Let's assume that there is a huge mountain strip whose peak is as high as Mt.Everest. Assume that I'm letting a small bouncing ball roll off the peak. If I let go of the ball from two different positions even inches apart, the place where this ball lands up is going to be differing to a great extent - perhaps two different countries altogether. This extreme sensitivity to the initial state or the starting point is called butterfly effect. Why is it called so? Since weather is a chaotic system, the displacement of air that the flap of a butterfly's wings can alter the path of a tornado... Sounds silly? Imagine this way... If a tornado is at its infancy where air pressure is starting to build up, and that eye is displaced a few inches by the flap of a butterfly's wings, then this small displacement (like the positions inches away on Mt. Everest) can cause a huge difference in the end point of the tornado. Perhaps, it can even stop the tornado if the flap happened to counteract the pressure that was starting to build. So the butterfly actually didn't make or break the tornado consciously but it just happened as a conaequence of its flap especially since the tornado was at its infancy. Chaos theory talks about the seemingly random (randomness is always interesting) dynamic systems (systems that involve constant changes in state) that are sensitive to their intial states as in the butterfly effect. This could be seen as the modified version of 'Karma' that Hinduism describes.
Coming to the question of what Dasavatharam to do with this, I honestly find it difficult to answer. The most common interpretation that Kamal fans give is that the course of action is being changed by each and every role of Kamal and there lies the beauty of the film. Well, let us think... If that is the case, there are so many (or should I say all) movies that have destiny playing a role. A crossing dog causes an accident where a young girl is made a widow or a rash driver hits a petrol pump that kills hundreds; are some common examples of this pattern. So it doesn't have anything to do with Dasavatharam in particular, is my point. Kamal/Ravikumar has just found out an alternate name for fate.
Second point is on the butterfly effect. Anyone sensible would understand that this should've happened only at the beginning of the movie if at all it happened. So Kamal is dropped with a huge Vishnu idol and since the Vishnu idol hit the bottom of the ocean and it created a δx differntial in the tectonic plate, it changed the course of a Tsunami and that tsunami changes the fate of a state. Accepted. But if this is the case, how does the scientist character or anyone for that matter infer that it is because of this incident and narrate that in a public gathering? It's like someone in New Orleans explaining which flap of which butterfly caused hurricane Katrina. To me the whole Nambi sequence nothing more than a baseless accusation on the Saivites. I've observed Kamal pointing out to saivism and saivites particularly on the negative side during his interviews (see video below) and this has taken it to new heights.
The incident that he points out in this interview is a contest between Jains and Saivites (Pandiyas) on the greatness of their Gods and the jains started the contest saying they could prove their greatness failing which they'll commit suicide. When they failed, half of them ran away and the rest committed suicide. This incident comes to Kamal's mind even when he is drunk and he takes this as a negative example while there are a million other points to quote about the changing culture.
The article on Kulothunga chozha in wiki would throw some light on what actually happened in the reign of the king.
Put together as much as I admire Kamal as a good actor, it is surprising when his fans call him 'Alwarpet Andavar' (God from Alwarpet) and quote 'I'm not an atheist like Kamal because he is my God'; for he is neither Einstein nor Vivekananda to be workshipped scientifically or spiritually. :)
Nothing too great here... Yet another software engineer working in yet another services company located in yet another US city :) However, that's not what I want to be! Pretty much like a Libran definition - wouldn't you agree? :))
