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...