|| Swanta Sukhaya ||

 Greetings! “All that he had believed was dissipated. Truths, which he had no wish for, inexorably besieged him. He must henceforth be another man. He suffered the strange pangs of a conscience suddenly operated on for the cataract. He felt that he was emptied, useless, broken off from his past life, destitute, dissolved.” From  Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Book IV, Chapter 1: Javert’s Suicide. Jean Valjean and Javert stand poles apart as we dive into this eponimous magnum opus of Victor Hugo. But through ups, downs, turns and misdirections in this literary journey - they seem to reverse their fate while following their own callings relentlessly. Jean, a simpleton and convict of draconian law and running away from it, using his bullok-like strength and rustic sense.  Javert, a firm believer in the letter of law, and enforcing it with napolean-like zeal, using his ruthless intellect and firm actions.    As we go through travails of Jean, the likelihood of Book I...

Greetings! Balance through chaos. Keeping foot on pedal while maneuvering through all kinds of traffic. Gritting it through the occasional ups. While enjoying (I don't know how they managed to achieve lesser slopes than ups but...) even more occasional slopes. All this is what you would expect from a cycling zen blog.  And, believe me, all of this is what any cyclist weaving through a city experiences. But this blog is not about it.  It is about the people that the cyclist passes by, those who overtake, and being overtaken by, come across and sometimes skirt around. People on the road, from myriads of hues and moods. Glum. Brooding. Tense. Melancholic. Lost in their thoughts (or in their phones).  Tired. Irritated. Frustrated. Angry (and some taking it out on accelerator or horn or both). Searching. Thirsty. (Looking as if,) Trying to find someone or something that will make them complete.  Hard. Suspicious. Having been betrayed again and again trying to pu...

Greetings! While, each of the senses we have, carry unfathomable spectrum of perception and associated emotions, the two that take the crown (generally), are the visual and aural.  Within these two, the visual surpasses aural on most counts. This is the very basis of entertainment industry and our collective fascination of movies. However, there are a chosen few, who have taken this medium to its pinnacle, especially visually.  One of such rare breed is Conrad L. Hall, ASC. And arguably one of his ultimate masterpieces, completed just before his death, (for which he got his last Oscar Academy award, posthumously,) is "Road to Perdition" Full Disclosure: I consider - every aspect of this movie, the graphic novel that inspired it, the creator of this graphic novel,  Max Allan Collins, and the manga that inspired Max to pen this graphic novel, 'Lone Wolf and Cub' and the creators of this manga viz. Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima - as an endless source of awe and inspirati...

Greetings! Recently, we have been watching episodes of an immensely interesting series, based on (equally engrossing) quartet of books by Trenton Lee Stewart. It has an awesome name that would attract any child reader in a heartbeat - The Mysterious Benedict Society! The premise, while exciting for children is intriguing for the grownups too. The book is peppered with awesome puzzles, enigmas and secrets and all that will keep the reader hooked to it. It all starts with extremely talented twin brothers, who grow up to be polar opposites. Of these two, one (Mr. Benedict) cherishes the pursuit of truth while the other (Mr. Curtain), turns out evil and wants to gain power on humankind by brainwashing them with negative thoughts of emergency.  Mr. Benedict, surmises that the only way to foil the vile designs of his twin is by getting four exceptional orphans to infiltrate the school run by his nemesis and sets up confounding tests to find the right ones. One of the four who make it to ...

Greetings! A book that I recently read proclaimed that "What things are, doesn't really matter, but what they mean to us is what matters".  As if by cue, (or in other words, as the invisible hands of coincidences would have it), it clicked with a movie that was being reminisced by a good friend recently! And here I share with you how the twains met, but before that, little bit about the movie. Every once in a while, a masterpiece of a movie is created that brings out fundamental human qualities vs. fallacies, are acted brilliantly, cinematographed richly and directed impactfully – “Men of Honor” is one such masterpiece. If you haven't watched it, then please do - I would definitely recommend it.  This is the story of Carl Brashear, who joins U.S. Navy to become the first African American Master Diver and a no-nonsense, bitter but a true patriot "Master Chief" Billy Sunday. These are the two "Men of Honor". While they alternately spar and respect ea...

Greetings! In rocketry, "staging" means mounting multiple separable parts (with their own engines and propellants) to create a multistage rocket. These stages might be in tandem (that is one above other) or in parallel to each other. The most popular is a 2-stage rocket but there could be 5 (or even more) stages.  For a rocket, the ultimate aim is to put the payload in orbit. Each of the stage plays it's part in giving it the right speed and proper height. These parts do their "part" (literally), and then usually get jettisoned away, with explosive bolts. The rocket launch is successful, when each of these stages fire up, burn out, remain attached, as well as get detached, in the right place and at the right time (which is usually not a moment before nor a moment after they are supposed to do so) You may say, this is all good, but why write a blog on it? Well, because i think this entire process maps to life and growth as each one of us experiences it. As we gro...

Greetings! One thing common among the greatest music legends is that, they thoroughly excel in the art of call -response. In fact, they revel in call-response as the music approaches crescendo! If you have any doubt, then you just need to play this great composition by Shakti,  an extra-ordinary Jazz-Indian Classical Music fusion band - made up of the amazing  quartet of John McLaughlin (guitar), L. Shankar (violin), Vikku Vinayakram (ghatam) and Zakir Hussain (tabla).   Although this video is dated (and you may want to turn up the volume to enjoy it better), you can also see (and hear) what a joy it was for these four to call-response among each other as they created music that makes our emotions dance!  And so, they aptly (and quite elaborately) named this composition as  " What Need Have I For This?-What Need Have I For That?-I Am Dancing At The Feet Of My Lord-All is  Bliss -All is Bliss-All is Bliss"   (Go ahead, play the video, watch enough ...

Greetings! Everyone (well, at least everyone who knows a little about English Literature), knows the plot of a play named 'Romeo and Juliet', written by that gifted prolific playwright - William Shakespeare.  It is a tragedy that has been played on stage for centuries and adapted into most of the languages. This tale has inspired countless adaptations, musicals and movies.  It has also been analyzed, critiqued and discussed over perhaps millions of conversations.  Still, as is the case with such timeless tales, once in a while someone sees one or more dimensions of this story and cannot help sharing what has been glimpsed. (Now, that I have given justification of writing once more about this oft written about tale - let me get on with it ..)  So, in the dimension that I glimpsed, I see Romeo as the intelligent, idealistic but impulsive and immature force of passion that lies within all of us. Romeo is the part within us that climbs the walls, jumps the balconies and ...

Greetings! One thing common among Zoologists and Management Gurus (and perhaps the rare amphibian-cuisine-connoisseurs) is their fascination with the boiled frog! So, what is this oft-repeated sordid tale of the poor and ultimately scathed amphibian?  The pop version goes as follows -  "A frog is let into a pot with water. It makes itself comfy and takes to it like a fish (or rather like a frog) in water. Then the pot is very slowly heated. The frog ignores this slow, gradual, incremental change. But then, at one point of time, the water starts boiling and it is too late for the frog to get out of situation. The frog gets boiled eventually." Morale of this pop version of story is clear - beware of slow, gradual, incremental changes. Watch out for tell-tale signs, lest the situation worsens to the doomsday scenario.  They even have a name for this condition where people, organizations and societies go on ignoring gradual change and then eventually face their doom on accoun...

Greetings! Hindustani Classical Music stands on a tradition that goes back for thousands of years (perhaps even more). Some of the greatest musical minds have contemplated and honed the essential patterns (ragas), which pass through the thick-skin and dulled-mind and touch the soul. One such raga is "Bhatiyar", that evokes the sense of trickling twilight  of early morning and gently stirs the soul from dark nothingness to the life giving light of - purpose and action!  Over years many musicians and singers have sought refuge of this raga to create timeless melodies.  Let us enjoy one such amazing journey of this raga that resulted into stirring of thousands of hearts - which ended up lifting millions of minds out of centuries of darkness. It all happened suddenly and unexpectedly on one of the balmy Mumbai nights in the 1980s.  Ace singers Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy and awesome (but relatively unknown) composer Ashok Patki had been working almost non stop si...

"Well... Light, it's been quite fun!" With these words Shinigami (the celestial death agent) Ryuk brought end to a smart young man (Light Yagami), who was drunk on power to kill anyone at will and intellect to get away with it! With this scene our binge-watch of the marvelous manga web-series "Death Note" also came to an end! The series doesn't answer any questions on death but truly makes us take note of how death or rather the fear of death shapes the psyche in particular and society in general. The first question is, who is the hero of the series? Is it Light Yagami? Who shows all the best and worst in human beings put together? Is it "L"? Who, with his amazing power of deduction finds out the real identity of Light Yagami. However "L" loses to Light in a shrewd diabolical plot set by Light and dies. Is it "Near"? The child prodigy who took over from "L" and beats Light at his own game of double-crossing and serves ...

Greetings! T'was a beautiful evening early in Fall season.  It seemed like the blue sky's got smitten by the splash of colors on leaves. I was still new to this place. I was still in awe of diners with their coffee aromas. Tranquil trails, with sporadic boards that warned about a mysterious but cute sounding Lyme disease, were yet to be trodden.  A friend of mine was driving me to a Jazz Cafe (for the very first time in my life). I had heard the magic of walking baseline and swing in Bollywood music before, but didn't know it was Jazz (yet). He asked me, have you ever heard Jazz. "..hmm... not sure..." was my answer. He smiled and just put in a cassette in his car's cassette player...      A guitar started strumming through the speakers... my mind had caught on the rhythm and the feet tapping with the walking baseline.  "...hmmm... the thrill is gone..." B.B. King's sonorous voice started wafting in and led me into the magical musical world of bl...

Greetings! Here is an anecdote that made me think about an insidious infliction that affects humanity. A 'normal' shepherd is chatting with an 'educated' shepherd. Let's call them Norm and Ed. Norm: How many sheep do you have? Ed: White or Black? Norm: White? Ed: 50. By the way I have 50 Black sheep too. Wonder what you have against the Black sheep? Norm: But I asked about all the sheep? Ed: Oh! Did you? You just said, "White?" Norm: Hey Buddy, I don't have anything against any of the sheep. By the way, do you get enough wool ? Ed: From which one? White or Black? Norm: Black? (Thinking he won't repeat the mistake this time!) Ed: Well I get enough from Black ones. By the way I get enough from white ones too. Wonder why are you bent on exploiting the Black sheep for their wool? Norm: (Gives up) I call Ed's infliction as "False Dichotomy". This has been a cognitive conditioning for gullible ones, usually perpetuated by those with ulterio...

Greetings! Shivaji Maharaj is one of the legendary Kings, hailed for his greatness all over the world. According to Prof. Narhar Kurundkar, the greatness of Shivaji Maharaj lies in his ability to inspire people to such an extent that not only the soldiers, but even a common man was ready to lay his life for the Swarajya (Independent Government) led by the great Shivaji Maharaj.  This great King was nurtured to greatness by his mother Jijamata. There was another mother who left an indelible mark on Shivaji Maharaj and inspired him. Her name was ‘Hirkani’ (the name means "A Sparkling Diamond Speck") Those hailing from the western state of Maharashtra in India are aware about the extra-ordinary story of Hirkani. For those who don’t know - here is a short version of the story. Shivaji Maharaj, who reigned the land as well hearts of people, was being coronated. The coronation ceremony needed a lot of milk. Hirkani was the mother of an infant and a milkm...

Greetings! My random playlist was on, while I was lost in the work. Suddenly the song changed and a soothing octate of violins started wafting in. These lilting sounds caught my attention. Then in about half a minute, on the cue of clicketting sticks, piano and guitar took over from the meliflous violins. The music felt as if, it was tugging at something inside me, that wanted to voice itself but somehow remained unspeaking. And then a man started singing ... "करे मन भजण नूं बेपार ..." Loosely translated from Gujarathi as "The mind has started dealing in devotion"! The words were not from my native language so I was trying to decipher them. But the passion with which they have been written and the emotion with which they have been sung by a voice and the divine way in which all instruments join in - felt absolutely amazing. I was being dealt with something outside of this world - yet through the music, the voice and words that are very much from this wor...

Greetings! Have you heard of a German Anatomist and Surgeaon named Dr. Julius Wolff  from 19th century, who (among a prolific bibliography) proposed "The law of transformation of the bone" in 1892? No? I too didn't. (Well at least till last week) While discussing how stress impacts human beings, I heard a wise man talk about Wolff's Law  . Technically, the law (now modified slightly by Utah-Paradigm of Bone physiology) states that mechanical loading influences bone structure by changing the mass (amount of bone) and architecture (its arrangement) to provide a structure that resists habitual loads with an economical amount of material. In simpler words - whenever bones of a healthy person experience tension, compression, shear they respond by becoming stronger! Great! But this leads to another question, does the human mind also respond in such "anti-fragile" way when it comes to the (mostly imagined but sometimes real) stress? The a...

Greetings! Pop Quiz - considering survival, reproduction and count as factors - which group of species can call themselves the most successful species on mother earth? Humans? Bzzzzz (that's me hitting the buzzer that indicates wrong answer!) This award goes to what we call as single cell organisms. With the numbers that are in multiples of, multiples of, multiples of sum of counts of all other species put together, we can simply call them as rulers of earth... (Apologies to the dictators of world who had deluded themselves to have concurred the world or felt that they can... Sorry guys, but you cannot even beat a bacterium... Go figure!) These little(?) folks make up most of the life on the earth and it seems like the human bodies are simply swimming in their oceans. But thank God, at least we have our bodies... or do we? Research says that "There are about 100 trillion cells in a human body. However, even one tenth are hardly real human cells.  The human b...

Greetings! "I have planted them all!", the 9 year old boy in red t-shirt was saying in matter of fact way. I looked at the land, made ready to sow through sheer hard work. The land was cut in steps, pruned off the shrubs. The planting spots were placed in neat rows and columns. Each one had a neatly planted mango sapling. "These saplings would grow with him. They would bear fruits as he would himself blossom into a fine young man and later as he turns into a father, uncle and a grandfather!' ", by the time this train of my thoughts reached next station, this sharp boy was already at the far end of the plot. Tending to a fledgling sapling, he looked at his doting uncle with a question mark. The uncle of his is a true farmer. He tends to his farms the way he would care for his family. He looks after friends, the way he would look after a plantation. Right now he was struggling  to contain his admiration for his nephew. "Let's water them",  ...

Greetings! I had heard about him from those who attended a great institution where he taught for many years. Well, now I myself got the opportunity to get into a learning program that was conceptualized and driven by him. That is when I experienced his teaching first hand... "Essentially, Liability is nothing but source of funds and Asset is nothing but use of funds.", he spoke in a gentle, measured and soft tone. "Is that all?", I thought... I thought he could read my mind, as he simply said, "That is it!" and paused!   It was a learning program unlike any that I had ever attended... He seemed to know what exactly we didn't know and what false notions we harboured. He seemed to know which insight of his would confuse us and to what degree and therefore at what moment to reveal it (and at what moment not to). It was as if a very complex question-processing engine was running in the background of his great mind. Somehow this engine was se...