Typical ~ 1

click on the image to read the article, its quite ridiculous.

Gabhricha Paus

Gabhricha Paus is a brilliant marathi movie starring the lovely and talented Sonali Kulkarni and the equally talented Girish Kulkarni, it deals with the issue of farmer suicides in Vidarbha in a remarkably soft manner devoid of bitterness. It does not skirt hard issues and the story is almost reminiscent of Dostoevsky in the way it crushes hope again and again. There are no happy endings, but the movie is not devoid of happiness.

Unlike Aakrosh which portrays the dark and desperate suffering of the advasis, Gabhricha Paus has well rounded characters (Im saying the Adivasi characters in Aakrosh are a little unidimentional, but the effect created is brilliant and legendary, so no complaints). It takes us into their lives, in their language (most urban marathi speakers will be glad for the subtitles quite often) and compells us to share in their fortunes and misfortunes. One cant help but be glad at Sonali's charming half smile when her husband likes her puranpoli (a special sweet dish) after being upset at the expense and we are anxious and worried when Girish (Kisna in the film) stares at the sky standing in his barren field while the song in the background implores mother earth to let the rain pour forth..

The movie does justice to the barren yet strangely beautiful landscapes of the area it is set and shot in and the soundtrack is true to the mood of the film. The songs resonate and are filled with meaning and the acting is quite exceptional. There are several nice touches I will not talk about so that you may have the pleasure of discovering them yourself.

All in all, very highly recommended. Some knowledge of Marathi will help of course, but the subtitles are not bad at all and if you can read English, this movie is a very rewarding watch.

Delightful.

अर्ध सत्य. (Half Truth)

This is the poem from Govind Nihalani's brilliant second film Ardh Satya (1983). The poem is by Dileep Chitre.

चक्रव्यूह मे घुसने से पहले,
कौन था मैं और कैसा था,
यह मुझे याद ही न रहेगा.
चक्रव्यूह मे घुसने के बाद,
मेरे और चक्रव्यूह के बीच,
सिर्फ एक जानलेवा निकटता थी,
इसका मुझे पता ही न चलेगा.
चक्रव्यूह से निकलने के बाद,
मैं मुक्त हो जाऊं भले ही,
फिर भी चक्रव्यूह की रचना मे
फर्क ही न पड़ेगा.
मरू या मारूं,
मारा जाऊं या जान से मार्डून,
इसका फैसला कभी न हो पायेगा.
सोया हुआ आदमी जब
नींद से उठकर चलना शुरू करता है,
तब सपनों का संसार उसे,
दोबारा दिख ही न पायेगा.
उस रौशनी मे जो निर्णय की रौशनी है
सब कुछ समान होगा क्या ?

एक पारडे मे नपुंसकता,
दुसरे पारडे मे पौरुष,
और ठीक तराजू के कांटे पर
अर्ध सत्य.

-दिलीप चित्रे

Swine Flu Article on New Scientist Magazine

http://www.newscientist.com/special/swine-flu-myths-that-could-endanger-your-life

and its not cheerful at all.

I Wait

for Peace and Clarity to flow in and wash away the skeletal remains of broken resolutions that have oppressed my mind for so many years



I wait for Peace and Clarity.
 

Apology to Leo Kadanoff

I have been fortunate enough to be taught by one of the great physicists of the last century (the century - I do not need to remind anyone - of Einstein, Schrodinger, Dirac, Feynman and others..) : Prof. Leo Kadanoff. Here is a man who laid the groundwork behind some of the most profound ideas (Renormalization Group) that are a crucial part of the underpinnings of the powerful field theories that are the epitome of human attempts to understand the universe.

He taught me - in fact he is teaching me this very moment - a course on Statistical Mechanics much of which is actually material created in part by him. Many crucial ideas in the field theory course Im doing concurrently originate from him and  David Tong from Cambridge who is teaching that excellent course mentioned once how sleepish he felt talking about some of these ideas with Leo Kadanoff sitting at the back of the class listening attentively.

He always comes 40 minutes before his class starts and he likes to listen to whats happening in the field theory course, and he loves to then begin his lecture by giving stat mech analogues of the field theory concepts we had been looking at. He is one of the leading proponents of 'Universality' in physics - the idea that phenomena (like critical phenomena, phase transitions) look identical across branches of physics. He likes to say, and show, how we do the same physics over and over again, the same equations reappear in completely different contexts.

He is perhaps one of the most humble most polite people Ive met. And so it is with deep - almost bitter - regret that I admit that I have not learnt much from him at all. It is my fault entirely, I simply did not make the effort necessary to appreciate and assimilate the deep concepts he was good enough to put forth enthusiastically before us, everyday, even at the age of 82. Between field theory and my indolence and laziness, I just did not do what was needed.

I am ashamed. But - if for no other reason than respect for Prof. Kadanoff - I will study and become good at Statistical Mechanics and understand renormalization before Im done with this business of theoretical physics.

I have made many similar mistakes....sleeping in PSB sir's class while he poured his heart into imparting knowledge springs immediately to mind, and perhaps I will never understand DSP and Control Systems as well as I should, but this time, I wont let it pass.

Questions

Is there anything, anything at all special about mankind ?

How much CAN we know about our Universe ?

Why does complexity arise ?

What is Information ?

How does 'computation' relate to physics ?

How does complexity theory, network theory, information theory, sampling theory etc relate to cosmology and quantum field theory ?

Why can we write mathematical laws that have any relation to the physical universe ?

Can I make money out of attempting to answer any of these questions ?

and finally, my pet peeve -

IF string theory does not make any testable predictions, why is it more ridiculous to say "god made the world" than to say "everything comes from little loops of strings vibrating in 11(?) dimensions"  ?
[and apparently "we see only 4 because the rest are wrapped up in 7 dimensional toroids"......(or something to that general effect)]