Crossing the quarter century mark

Many times during last month, I felt the urge to write. I did write some articles too but did not post it. Somehow I felt the articles did not come quite good. Its another question whether the articles that I post too are good enough.

I turned 25 this 1st May. And many people reminded me that I have scored a quarter century. The last year will go down my memory lane as one of the most memorable. Somehow I came out from my nagging and depressing introspection and slowly I'm learning to be more bindhaas. Though I have a perpetual hint of smile on my face, in reality, when I'm alone I did tend to be very serious kinda person. (They say the same about Abraham Lincoln :D ). I was unable to accept changes which threatened my comfort zone. I still am not not entirely comfortable with it but there are signs of improvement. The biggest burdens were my own expectations and the inevitable necessity to control this burden brings about. I read some philosophy and it invariably led me to depressing thoughts.

But somehow last year has made me realize strongly that nothing in life's quirks is worth much bothering about and no philosophy is complete. You cannot have complete control and have the things the way you wanted. In fact, life is fun only because there is uncertainty and chaos galore. Absolute control would render the life very dull and boring. Contradictions are part and parcel of life and the only answer to such situations is forty-two. In fact, I strongly suspect that 42 is indeed the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. (For non-hitchhiker-guide readers, it means that in general life does not make much sense and you must read this book, its the craziest I have ever read). Though it does not make much sense, it does not mean that you should not try to bring a little order in things around you but the key point is that after you give it your best, do not bother much about the results and accept the results the way they turn out to be. If the results do not make much sense, remember that the answer is forty-two and move on.

Talking about my dabbling with philosophy and the resulting depressing thoughts, somehow I have come to the conclusion that no philosophy will ever be sufficient to answer all the aspects of life. In fact the only philosophy that may work in every situation is "Take the best possible action according to situation without being very rigid with do-s and dont-s". Realizing this has had a lot of effect on me. Now I don't spend my time brooding over philosophy but try to be present in that situation, try to be present in that moment. Avoiding unnecessary and futile philosophical conundrums and trying to live the moment has made my life much more peaceful and happy.

Preaching and practicing are two different things but at least realizing this stuff has made the 25th year very special for me.

- Onkar

Nostalgia (or frustration?)

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PDF -
once probability density function
now portable document format
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A Secret

Recently via an incredible series of coincidences, I could lay
my hands on a secret document. The secret document is the
employee induction agreement between an aspiring journalist
and the Times of India. To my biggest surprise, the document was
real short and consisted of only two lines. Here it is -

Gulaal

I recently watched "Gulaal", a hindi film directed
by Anurag Kashyap based on student politics in
Rajasthan. The movie is quite good though
slightly complicated. I could watch it twice, a rare
phenomenon for me.

Apart from the performances and dialogues, what
really stands out in the movie are the songs and lyrics.
The songs are in perfect tandem with the movie,
both in tune and words. In fact, the lyrics hits you
with hammer. The adaptations of "Ye Duniya Agar
Mil bhi Jaaye to Kya hai" and "Sarfaroshi ki
Tamanna" are simply mind blowing, so are the songs
"Aarambh Toh Prachanda Hai" and "Raat ke Musafir".
I haven't listened to to these songs out of the context
of the movie, perhaps the music may not sound that
great out of the context.

Nevertheless, the lyrics had been a great experience
and after a lot of days I found myself paying attention
to the words of songs. Pasting below lyrics of one of
the songs in Gulaal : "O Ri Duniya". This is an adaptation
(not exactly though) of the song "Ye Duniya agar
Mil Bhi Jaaye To Kya Hai". For a better
understanding and impact, you may watch the movie :)

======================================
O ri Duniya
----------------

Surmayi aankhon ke pyaalon ki duniya
Satrangi rangon gulaalon ki duniya..o duniya
Alsaayi sezon ke phoolon ki duniya
Angdaai tode kabootar ki duniya
Karwat le soyi haqueeqat ki duniya
Deewaani hoti tabeeyat ki duniya
Khwahish mein lipti zaroorat ki duniya
Insaan ke sapno ki neeyat ki duniya..o Duniya

O ri Duniya

ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai…

Mamta ki bikhri kahaani ki duniya
Behno ki siski jawaani ki duniya
Aadam ke Hawwaa se rishte ki duniya
Shaayar ke pheeke lafzon ki duniya

Ghalib ke Momin ke khwaabon ki duniya
Majaazon ke un inqualaabon ki duniya
Faiz Firaaq aur Saahir o Makhdoom
Mir ki Zauk ki Daagh ki duniya

Ye duniya agar…

Pal chhin mein baatein chali jaati hain hain
Pal chhin mein raatein chali jaati hain hain
Reh jaata hai jo savera wo dhoondhey
Jalte makaan mein basera wo dhoondhey
Jaisi bachi hai waisi ki waisi bachaa lo ye duniya
Apna samajhke apno ke jaisi uthaalo ye duniya

Chhut put si baaton mein jalne lagegi sambhaalo ye duniya…
Kat pit ke raaton mein palne lagegi sambhaalo ye duniya..

O ri Duniya…

Wo kahein hain ki duniya ye itni nahi hai
Sitaaron se aage jahaan aur bhi hain
Ye hum hi nahi hain wahaan aur bhi hain
Hamaari har ek baat hoti wahin hai

Hamein aitraaz nahi hai kahin bhi
Wo aalim hain faazil hain honge sahi hi
Magar falsafaa ye bigad jaata hai
Jo wo kehte hain

Aalim ye kehta wahaan Eeshwar hai
Faazil ye kehta wahaan Allah hai

Tumhari hai tum hi sambhalon ye duniya
Ye bujhte huye chand baasi charaaghon ki
Tumhaare ye kaale iraadon ki duniya…
==================================

Jack Sparrow Says

Recently two of my friends said that I am a boring
person because I am too sincere in my attitude.

I'll try my best to be little insincere, sincerely !

मा फलेषु कदाचन |

I have been reading one of the articles by one of the persons
who happens to be my friend/philosopher/guide in some sorts.
In the article, he spoke about how powerful is the following
shloka from Bhagavdgita

"You have the right of only performing the actions, not of
the fruit. Do not live for the fruit of your actions, and do
not shirk from actions."

He explained it quite beautifully and quite in the same
spirit as I understand it (others may not agree!).

Here is a very brief summary of my understanding : You
don't have the right to consequences(fruits) of an action
because there are many factors involved in determining
the consequences, most of the times taking the control
out of your reach. But what you can definitely claim
as your right is the right to perform the action
because there are no other factors involved in it.
If you cannot control the consequences, you should attach
no importance to the consequences in your life. And though
you should practice detachment from the fruits, you
should not turn away from action.

Of course, it is a powerful message and I completely
agree with it except a small part. I find this
detachment-from-the-fruits-of-action part quite
difficult to cope with. I have thought of an alternative
which I feel offers more psychological support to me.

Instead of completely detaching myself from the consequences,
why I should not take a little joy in the thing that I
performed at least one of the multitude of the factors?
(If the consequences are bad, then regret a bit).
I will not claim that I am fully responsible for
the consequences because I know that I am not! I will not
claim joy/sorrow for the part for which I was not responsible.
But I would definitely like to feel pleasure/pain
for the part, even the minute part for which I was
responsible, because this gives me a motivation to move on,
and do more action, to live. Without this little
little joy/sorrow I will not be motivated to live.

Of course, different people will have different interpretations,
different justifications and so on. But I feel that
this little attachment makes me human, to enjoy life, to
give some justification for why I should perform the action.

And the above is also the way I interpret one of my all
time favorite quotes from Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore:
"Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is
no freedom for the tree".

- Onkar

...and the world lost an Euler !

Euler, the legendary mathematician went to the city of Konigsberg. The city was divided in four parts by rivers. The rivers had seven bridges on it. There he was asked if it was possible to travel all the bridges in a single journey without going twice over any bridge.



Euler realized that it was simply not possible !
He redrew the graph drawing edges for each bridge.

He said that traveling each bridge exactly once is same as drawing the graph without lifting pencil. Then he generalized the problem saying that drawing any graph without lifting pencil such that you start from point X (source) and end at point Y (destination) is possible if and only if each point (technically "node") had even number of edges connected to it, with possible exceptions of X and Y.

I had read about this long back but few days ago I tried to prove it and finally proved it. But proving it reminded me of my childhood days.

Someone at my school, mostly a classmate gave us a puzzle. We had to draw the figure below without lifting pencil.



I solved it after a few attempts. It turns out that you must start from point A and end at point B (or vice versa). Because Euler's theorem tells us that only source (A) and destination (B) are allowed to have odd number of edges connected to them, but every intermediate node must have even number of edges.


In my schooldays puzzle, only A and B had odd number of edges. So if your starting and end points of journey were not these points, it is impossible to draw the figure without lifting the pencil.

Though I solved that puzzle, I never realized that it was not the answer but the nature of question that was important.

But I never thought it that way.... and the world lost an Euler ! :P :P