बापू की अंतिम यात्रा

भूमंडल से नभमंडल तक चहुँओर अंधेरा छाया
कर्णधार ही चले गए किसने यह गान सुनाया 

नहीं जानता था कोई कब काल यहाँ पर आया 

धिक्कार है उसको जिसने बापू पर हाथ चलाया 

मेरी किस्मत में आग लगी, औरों की किस्मत फूट गयी 

अपने ही हाथों से हाए, बापू पर गोली छूट गयी 

वह बांध अहिंसा का भारी, मेरे सन्मुख ही टूट गया 

वह प्रेम भरा गागर भी मेरा, आज वहीं पर फूट गया 

गोली थी बापू के सीने पर, या थी अपने ही त्राता पर 

गोली बापू पर नहीं, चली भारत के भाग्य विधाता पर 

उनके सीने से रक्त गिरा, या आहों से भरी फुंकार गिरी 

उस देवदूत के सीने से, हरि वीणा की झनकार गिरी 

वह देवों से भी बढ़कर था, वह निर्धन जन का भी धन था 

जनता की करुण पुकार बना, वह जीवन का भी जीवन था 

वह एक धेय से आया था, बस नाव हमारी खेने को 

पुण्य पिलाने, सत्य बांटने, अस्त्र अहिंसा देने को 

बन पीड़ितों की पुकार चला, हरिजन का बन आधार चला 

डगमग नैय्या थी डोल रही, बनकर वह खेवनहार चला 

आजादी की अम्बुधि उठने से, निकल पड़ा विष का प्याला 

पीना वाला था कोई नहीं, बापू ने उसको पी डाला 

आज़ादी का आगमन हुआ, पर हम अपने ही छले गए 

इस बीच भंवर में नैय्या को तज बापू मेरे चले गए 

करता था हुंकार कभी तो शत्रु शिविर भहराता था 

था तो दुबला पतला ही पर भूमंडल भी थर्राता था 

आंचल पसार माँ मांग रही अपने उस बापू प्यारे को 

भिक्षा में फिर देदो भगवन मेरे उस एक सहारे को 

- निर्मल कुमार सिन्हा

This piece was penned by my grandfather long ago, when he used to love writing poetry and also had the leisure to do so! This is the first time this piece has been documented (it's still in its incomplete form though), as until now he used to quote this from his memory for our listening pleasure. If only I could lay my hands on some other of his poems! I feel so proud and humbled in letting my small personal blog space have the honor of putting my grandfather's close-to-heart works; you mean a lot to all of us in the family, Dadaji; I am just not good enough in wording all those overwhelming emotions. Please accept this as my small and unassuming tribute to you...

P.S. Any mistake in form of mis-spelled words, missing punctuations, etc. arise out of my own incompetence in understanding of the language.

Artificial Intelligence: A.I.

"Cirrus, Socrates, particle, decibel, hurricane, dolphin, tulip"

Watched Spielberg’s masterpiece: Artificial Intelligence: A.I., yesterday evening. i use the word 'masterpiece' not in the sense a film critic would use, rather a viewer deeply affected by the movie would use to imply. By the way, it's also a first for me to use that word to describe my experience of a movie; no Spielberg movie had yet affected me as much… On a rather lesser level, it also reminded me of the movie 'Rani Aur Lalpari', involving an almost similar desire of a girl to find Lal pari (Red fairy), that i had so loved as a child (but, was bored of it when i tried to gavi it a re-watch a few months ago; beginning of the end of innocence?)...

i had discovered earlier about myself, i think, i am easily most affected (positively) by innocence, and love, not necessarily in that order. i didn't have an inkling as to which of them affected me the most, i had given the benefit of doubt to love. However, after this movie, i am having second thoughts on that, in favour of innocence...


Post-watch, i was left with such a pacific, meditative peace and calm with myself, and at the same time in such an awe of the 'innocence' and the sage like 'perseverance’ of the mecha boy: David (does this name imply any Biblical significance?), that i still have that tranquil hangover this next evening too…




"Blue fairy! Please make me a 'real' boy!"



That apart, it also did lead me to some instant random questions, representing and arising out of my current unorganised state of thoughts on this issue of natural v/s artificial life, i need find answers to, to enable me make more sense of the issue. So here some of the basic ones go:

• How do we scientifically define ‘life’ and/or 'intelligence' (as opposed to finding such definitions rooted in religion and theology)?
• What are the necessary and sufficient conditions to define and characterise life and/or intelligence?
• 'Artificial' just an innocent prefix indicative only of the creator of life or intelligence (nature or humans and/or machines), or does it imply more?

Answers to these below mentioned ones can probably be found in answers to the above questions:

• Any system then takes an input, has the power & resources to processes it, and reacts to the input (to give an output) be called an elementary form of life and/or intelligence (a crude example being any simple computer program)?
• While attempting a simulation of life, at what point the simulation ceases to be one, and becomes an artificially created life?
• An amoeba be called an instance of life, while even a super toy from A.I. not?

Obviously, as it can be seen, many of these questions wouldn't have been there in the first place, had i had the least bit exposure to studying artificial intelligence in pursuit of my curiosity. However, i do hope to make a start...

P.S.
Detective Del Spooner: Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a... canvas into a beautiful masterpiece? 
Sonny (an advanced robot): Can you?

(I, Robot)

The Bucket List

The Bucket List: 1. Witness something truly majestic

"It is difficult to understand the sum of a person's life; some people will tell you it is measured by the ones left behind; some believe it can be measured in faith; some say by love; other folks say, life has no meaning at all. Me? I believe that you measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you...

Even now, I can't claim to understand the measure of a life, but i can tell you this: I know, when he died, his eyes were closed, and his heart was open..."

Carter Chambers

this one is for you, Jim

Jim Dial, and Murphy Brown

"When you are so low, that you can't remember what happy feels like; when you are so scared, that sleep is a distant memory, and smiling is a forgotten art; when being sad is as natural as breathing; then you go (to join a support group, while battling against breast cancer). Until then, I am here for you."

Jim Dial, to colleague and close friend, Murphy Brown

P.S. Murphy Brown, Episode 10x13 Turpis Capillis Annus

The Truman Show

"We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented."

Christof, to Truman

Take an overnight of mind draining work till 6-7 in the morning, add to it some 5 hrs of scant sleep (yes, 8 hrs is my niche), a supposedly healthy lunch further badly cooked, followed by a whole afternoon of college classes that you are left no choice but to attend wearily so that the attendance percentages don't dip below a certain minimum, with some nagging mind intensive work in evening as a garnish, to cook up your mind to such desperation, that it cries for that elusive uninterrupted 12 hrs of pacific sleep, and yet cannot have because even though the mind is tired, it's still irritatingly active and anything but feeling drowsy..

Now, where to bury the frustration.. a sitcom episode of the current favourite Murphy Brown.. okay, finished the 225th episode.. it was the usual good sarcastic laugh, but needed something more, as watching straight 80-90 episodes had built up an unavoidable monotony and i needed a season break! Cut-to, i remember promising a friend to watch his recommended movie today.. okay, can give it a try.. shouldn't hurt, even though i am usually wary of watching good recommended movies, (read profound) threatening to overburden the already mentally exhausted state with more layers and quantities of impactful and/or provocative thoughts, i decided to go with this movie called 'The Truman Show' (hadn't heard of it earlier, and what did the name indicate about the movie, i wondered?), for the sole reason of seeing Jim Carrey as the leading man.. it seemed a safe and light package...
Some 2 hrs later...

Well, what do i say about this one.. Simply put it, it's a kind of unique movie (yes, it did burden the already burdened mind, but in a refreshingly positive way) i haven't watched in a long, long time, and deservedly, it shows up in the list of 'Must Watch ( unique) Movies Before You Die', at the 'Cinema is Forever!' blog post, a definite place to be for all cinema lovers, at http://cinemaisforever.blogspot.com. And, in case you were wondering whatever happened to all that sulking, well, as a friend of mine put it, "good cinema is therapeutic!", and i can surely tell you now, i couldn't agree any more!

You want more reasons to watch the film? Well, be my guest and follow the link, but better still, head straight for the movie, and save the link for post watch..

It's time out for these pleasures of mind now. Over to some pleasures of the taste. Time to hopefully get the first decent meal of the day, and hopefully follow it up with that sleep thing i was talking about earlier, as a another friend of mine recently wished me well, "may slumber soothe us all..."

:)

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again..."

Benjamin Button, in letter to his daughter

Well, the picture I have put up above, is a freeze of one of the profound scenes from the movie, that always sends me into such an indescribable state of awe inspired shock whenever I see it: so terrible yet so beautiful at the same time (no, you won't be able to judge that just by looking at the picture, if you haven't seen the film)...

And, about that piece from a letter mentioned above, even though you may not find in it something you have totally unheard off earlier (the last sentence has its similarities with Kipling's 'If'), I absolutely love it for the way it momentarily liberates me from every mundane set-of-rules laid down before me by the world on how to live and judge my life... And, the manner in which it is portrayed: a person who has truly lived a unique life, summing up his profound life experiences for his daughter's ease, it's among those few scenes from the movie I can usually watch over and over again (along with the scene from which the freeze-frame is put up above), and yet can never have enough of...

Insomnia

"I guess it's about what you thought was right at the time, than, what you're willing to live with."

Rachel Clement, to Will Dormer

Ah, with these and more quotes, I would like to express, those some lines from a movie I recently watched, that were presented cinematically in such a way that the effect stayed, or which I wanted to stay for a while; thoughts, that I felt, maybe, summarised the whole movie for me in those moments; thoughts, I had never encountered earlier; thoughts, I thought I understood, when maybe I did not; thoughts, I think I would like to revisit again, to may be fondly rekindle the faded memories of that once watched movie...

a flawed State?

Rama, among the grandest of religious icons, unfortunately,
merely reduced to the biggest of all misused religio-political icons
in the contemporary Indian politics

I think about the ideology of any nation state being based solely on people belonging to a single religion (Pakistan being a Muslim nation; the RSS's 'noble' and 'pure' dream of the 'Hindu Rashtra', to name a neighboring few) as essentially flawed, as even though at an unconscious level, it looks very much rooted in religious intolerance, and as a natural byproduct fosters extremism too. It directly seems to imply that people from different religions worshiping different gods cannot coexist peacefully and be part of a composite society, even at this point of human civilization (from a historical prespective), and that, for a creation and sustainence of a peaceful and socially coherent political entity, people should essentially belong to the same religion worshiping the same gods (or, Gods, if you wish so) as used to happen millenniums ago...

This ideology is either prejudiced in its thinking that social bonds between people 'should' and can 'only' be based on 'religious-brotherhood' bonds (hmm! breeding ground for intolerance, leading to extremism there), or it underestimates the social cohesion between people based on the implicit racial bonding (of the homo sapiens race, I mean; each species is hard-wired similarly), or is a leftover remnant of the days when the Church used to have a supreme power over the State. Whatever may be the case, the growth of human civilization over times is gradually rendering this ideology, which may have been once the most important tool for political and societal cohesion, redundant in the current world scenario. Also, not to mention the threat this ideology poses to the current world peace and further 'growth' of the civilization, if peaceful coexistence and tolerance between varying world religious communities (and 'races' too, I must add) can be defined as one of the comparative yardsticks!

I won't go on commenting with certainty but I am beginning to notice that the roots of all 'religious extremism' based terrorism worldwide, can be traced back to the 'source' nations that are either a nonsecular state, or which politically implicitly endorse a specific religious body or creed. Correlation or causation?

What ever may be the case, all this is does goes into making me a very firm believer in the disestablishment process, marking a clear-cut separation of Church from the State, and the people having a freedom of religion, or freedom from religion altogether (if I may add so) as their fundamental right, as granted and fiercely protected by the state...

This major and important socio-political transition, of creation and sustenance of secular nation states (it seems most of which are also democratic!), with people shedding their inhibitions, being more tolerant to, respecting, and entrusting in people from 'other religions', may be a leap of faith for many, a natural progression for some, and quite a blasphemy for others, but, is here to stay for sure, and I hope, for the good!

P.S. This is just me thinking out loud on matters I wished I understood more. I am neither a student of political science or sociology and like subjects, and these are just my elementary level perceptions that I have acquired in a society I grew up, and watch. Consider these thoughts as my first steps towards an interest in the serious understanding and analysis of such socio-political or religious matters...

Jo

Well, she is among my most fav. ladies and authors (just love her writing style) whom I absolutely adore and keep looking out for. And,  J.K. R O W L I N G also has had the privilege of being the majority stake holder of my imaginative world for a better part of those teenage and more years. ; )

Recently read her Commencement Address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association (delivered on June 5, 2008).

 The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

Loved to hear (read) from her after a long time. It has been ages since I finished The Deathly Hallows.

Just quoting some excerpts  (full text here) from that delivery, some of which I feel are relevant to me today, some may be tomorrow, and are probably for the keeps... Not all I that I read could truly fathom, nevertheless, some other day, as time is one relentless teacher that never gives up on us...

So, some excerpts follow:

Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambitions I had for myself,

and what those closest to me expected of me.

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;

the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure,

but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to my self that I was any thing other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at any thing else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

P.S. I have covered only some pieces from the 'failure' portions from my full read, because the 'imagination' portions would have been stripped of their essence, had they been quoted irregularly from different places. You can read the full text here.

Our hostage gods

Contrary to what the various religious leaders and self-supposed guardians of various world religions would like to believe and assert, their revered gods and messengers are not a proprietary of their respective religions, and neither do they possess the exclusive right to grant people licenses to worship them, at their damn discretion.

जगन्नाथपुर मंदिर, पूरी | the Jagannath temple, Puri / Picture by Jason

In an ancient and among the most revered hindu temples, the jagannath temple in Puri, India, non-hindu people or even converts to hinduism (this eliminates most of the foreign ISKCON devotees of krishna too), are not allowed to enter and offer their prayers. The temple authority lays too much emphasis on being a hindu by birth, rather being a spiritual or even a religious person! May be the hindu gods there don't like people with dual citizenships of religions ;) or may be those gods are real victims and the long suffering hostages of these 'religious' bigots, guarding those four temple walls.

On a sadder note, this always makes me feel shameful that I am a hindu by birth, as I cannot bring myself to identify with such archaic practices and philosophies, and even sacred privileges that are conferred upon me just because of an accidental (or even if not) virtue of my birth. It's one of the most revered hindu temples of lord vishnu, and among the four sacred dhams established by the Adi Shankaracharya, but I don't think I will ever pay my visits to the gods enclosed and blinded behind the four walls there, till this archaic and ugly law stands. I also doubt whether the temple trust authority can justify it as part of some hindu religious guideline, and intend to do a background check regarding the constitutional legality of such discriminating act. But heck, here faith still (read bigotry) supersedes law at times.

And I am not even going to discuss the systemic and unanimous prejudice against the gods in all major religions, no exceptions, when it comes to not allowing them to 'accept' many special religious services and duties from their women devotees, when they can unassumingly accept those from the male counterparts. In orthodox christianity a women can't be ordained / become a pope; same with orthodox judaism; mormonism; hinduism too has its fair share of such non-sense; and about muslim women the less said the better

Writer-producer David E. Kelley^# so rightly rightly echoed these sentiments as:

"The ugly fact is that we are okay with bigotry as long as it is cloaked in faith... Religion has a mean legacy... We cannot deny that religion is one place where we allow hate, oppression and discrimination to fester, as it seeks safe haven in the constitution."

Time for enlightened religious people to take control of the situation and release our hostage gods (irrespective of their religion; they all equally need us) from ages of tyranny from the 'religious ignorance' of 'religious people'? I don't think in at least another 100 years to come...

Just in case, if you happen to be an atheist or an agnostic and missed the whole point, view the whole scenario with a role-reversal point of view. Who are the real hostages here: gods, or us?

And, at the risk of getting 'lynched' by the people whose 'religious sentiments' I might have knowingly or unknowingly 'hurt', I have knowingly omitted those 'grammatical capitalizations’ from various 'holy' words associated with various religions, because I don't respect any world religion in their current form, the way they are practiced in our times, as opposed to the way they should be practiced. Yes, it can be argued that it’s not the religions, but the religious leadership that has failed us, nevertheless, people should not be allowed to get away committing civil rights or human rights violation under the hood of religion, and it's about time that the religions systemically fostering and perpetuating such, be categorically banned, denied their tax-exempt status, be tried in the court of law for such violations among starters. Now, you are free to think of this as a “ridiculous, sacrilegious, or even a blasphemous act of heresy” being committed here, nevertheless, the views stand tall, with reference to the current acceptable worldwide civil rights or human rights (not to be confused with the civil/human rights scale as considered a reference by the taliban and likes) or even 'god rights' (they too are  the victims here, as this whole nonsense is unfortunately falsely justified in their 'holy' name) standards...

^# The Gods must be Crazy, Boston Legal