Reflections

So here is a mathematical answer to a question that I have quite often asked myself and seldom troubled my friends with: “Does life move in Spirals or Circles?” The course that life takes is often described as a maze by some and a road with lots of twists and turns by others. A complicated web of events, people, emotions and thoughts, caught between these is you, the spider. A lot of our religious books refer to the course of life as “the cycle of life”, which essentially means “the circle of life”. It is perhaps the phrase used most often during those innumerable philosophical discussions that boring people like us have over drinks with friends. Yes, I have been ranting for quite a while, without really bringing in what I promised: the mathematics! In laymen terms, a circle is a two dimensional figure which is a collection of all points that are at equal distances from a given point. Essentially, a circle starts and ends at the same point. A spiral, is a three dimensional figur...

It has been a long time since “The Fountainhead” that I came across a novel so satisfying as “A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel” by Gaurav Suri and Harosh Singh. Certainly not two of the known strata of intellectual authors that I have tried to read over the past year, kudos to them for the book! Now the book does not boast about a great vocabulary or the use of satirical statements that make you smirk at the wit of the author. Neither does it transport you to a fairy land. It talks about two things: Mathematics and Philosophy. Or rather one, Mathematical Philosophy. The book has two subplots, one being the narrator’s story and the other being the story of the narrator’s grandfather’s arrest when he came to America as a mathematics student. Both the stories run parallel and get interspersed with each other by the end. Each one complimenting the other. The story is simple, without any romantic drama that often accompanies a novel. A grandchild follows into the footsteps of hi...

While looking for “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky in the college library, I chanced upon a collection of poetry and prose by Christina Rossetti, a Victorian poetess born to Gabrielle Rossetti.   An occasional poet myself, I couldn’t resist the growing feeling of reading the book. Besides, the nine days of navratri vacations needed to be spent doing something worthwhile! What better way than indulge in some poetry and mathematics: both of them being things that I take keen interest in! Christina Rossetti, sister of Dante Rossetti writes about death very poignantly. Or perhaps I just happened to chance upon a lot of poems dedicated to that theme as I adopted the technique of randomizing the selection of poems to read! One such poem is: After Death The curtains were half drawn, the floor was swept   And strewn with rushes, rosemary and may   Lay thick upon the bed on which I lay,   Where through the lattice ivy-shadows crept.   He leaned above me, thinki...

A flash of Golden light, That woke me up from the slumber of the previous night: The yielding touch of white fluffy cotton pillows, The sun shining bright with a tinge of red, The mellow sounds of water flowing from the tap, And the morning breeze whispering in my ears, An arm slung over the waist as if protecting, Fatigued body unwilling to stand, A million fast cars, And the careful knock at the door. Faint orange memories of beautiful lands visited, The leaves cracking beneath the feet, The familiar sounds of the evening chirps of birds, And the spotted brown barks of the trees, A hand held with the firmness of belief, Tireless feet walking towards no particular destination, A million scornful eyes, And the pink laughter of children playing around. The violet night blanket, The bright glittering street lights, The ocher sand tickling the feet as it washes away, An arm wrapped around with a caressing touch, An uphill walk in the blue pajamas, A million laughing lips, And the green s...

With the whip of the mouth and the lash of the tongue, Punishing each other, for the deeds undone: Fire and water, water and fire, They are sinners; Sinners of love. Submerging the flames into their depth, Pacifying their turbulence, Cooling their anger at the world: a rush of waves. Expanding the waves into steam, Filling them with energy, Caressing their wounds inflicted by the seashore: a surge of flames. Now, towering over each other in circles and spirals, Each one trying to outdo the other: Fire and water, water and fire, They are competitors; Competing for love. Slowly creeping onto the flames, Steadily sucking on their flesh, Asserting their autonomy with a sudden gush, The waves bite at the flames! The flames, pacified earlier, Make a comeback, towering higher than the waves, Their touch blazing with passion driven by tireless desire, And so the waves rest! Asserting their identity; submitting to desire. Submitting to the other’s identity; asserting their passion. Fire and...

No, it does not. Danny Boyle’s movie “The Beach” starring Leonardo Di Caprio (from which the caption has been taken) makes for a nice late night watch. Now this piece of writing is not exactly a movie review. I am not giving you the background or the storyline of the movie. I am just going to share a string of thoughts that was set to motion by the caption of this article. These thoughts (like most of the others) are not necessarily related to the title, but revolve somewhere close to it. You never fall helplessly in love with someone. Never. Love is a choice. A conscious, thought out choice that you make weighing out the pros and cons of making the choice. Even Love at First Sight is a choice, however impulsive it may be! You choose to love a person. You choose to overlook the differences that they have (or in some cases, choose to change them) You choose to share your life with them. You make this choice of loving them and during the course of your life, try to figure out if you m...

All hail to the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing disclosure of evaluated answer sheets of any public or professional examination to students under the purview of the RTI Act! Now this I say, is some real good work! A Bench of Justice AK Patnaik and RV Raveendran upheld the order of Calcutta High Court regarding disclosure of answer sheets to the students stating that answer sheets come under the purview of “information” as defined in the RTI Act! Talking from personal experience of a nerd who perhaps slogged her hours mugging for the CBSE Board Examinations and yet landing up with marks below expectations, a step such as this would be just enough to satiate my curiosity regarding “where I went wrong” or perhaps “where they (examiners) went wrong”! Additionally, if I was planning to give my answer sheets for re evaluation, I would be more sure about the need for a re evaluation after knowing what really went wrong with my answers. It is understandable why the major examination bodies ...