A flyer for Pizza Caprina, a home delivery pizzeria drifted in with the morning's newspaper. Since the quality of pizzas at the more popular joints is steadily declining, we decided to give it a shot. After all, it can't be much worse than D or P, we thought. We called in our order and 35 minutes later, a puffing and panting delivery boy handed in our order.
The pizza, and the garlic bread turned out to be a surprise package. The garlic bread was fresh, and did not require appetising by a dip. The pizza was even better. Excellent base, well done with sauces and cheese that did not require a leather cutter and generously sprinkled with toppings. We enjoyed the pizza so much that we decided to call back and pay them a compliment. What unfolded was unbelievable.
Tring... tring...
Hello, Pizza Caprina?
Good evening, Pizza Caprina, may I help you sir?
Hi, yes, about an hour ago, I ordered a pizza and...
Sir, can you give me your name sir?
Yes, my name is Raman, but...
Sir, the pizza is on its way sir, it will be delivered in five minutes. Sorry for the delay.
But my friend, the pizza has already arrived and we have eaten it and wha...
Some problem sir?
Arre, I am calling to say that the pizza was excellent, it was really good.
Sir, what is the problem sir?
Boss, में यह बोल रहा हूँ के pizza बहुत अच्चा था, इतना अच्चा pizza अरसे में नहीं खाया. बहुत मज़ा आगया.
नहीं sir, ज़रूर कुछ problem होगा.
नहीं यार, में हमेशा Dominos और Pizza Hut से pizza खाता था, लेकिन आपका pizza तो ज़बरदस्त था. It was fabulous.
Sir, I will speak to manager and call you back.
Click!
Guy probably thought I was being sarcastic or was a prankster. Probably no one's ever called back to compliment a good pizza. Shows how unappreciative we have become.
Showing posts with label Musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Musings. Show all posts
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
We, the people
The captioned event that yours truly witnessed, took place in that microcosm of life, the Mumbai local train. It was late evening and the train was fairly sparse. People were all lost in their own thoughts, ruminating over the day's events, when all of a sudden, this middle aged gentleman starts playing blaring music on his mobile. The numbers that the contraption belted out were jarring, to say the least. The eight odd passengers in the immediate vicinity, were visibly annoyed. To my great surprise, not one, I repeat not one person told the guy to pipe down. Even the chaps sitting next to him made faces, but did not utter a word. After watching this drama for a few minutes, I tapped the guy and told him to use his headphones. Evidently, the guy was oblivious to the nuisance that he was causing, apologised and switched to earphones. Half a dozen faces looked at me with a mute thanks. All it would have taken was for one person to speak up than suffer silently.
We, the people. We Are we like this only?
We, the people. We Are we like this only?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Dvaita Advaita reconciled
This some reference to the earlier post The Whole and the Part. As in the earlier piece, consider an apple. Now, cut a small slice from the apple. What do we now have? We have the big apple from which the smaller slice was cut out. Is it apple? Yes. We also have the small slice that we cut off. What is it? It is also apple! So, the smaller piece that also has the essence of the apple is also apple. Thats Advaita. Now, look at it from a different angle. How many entities do we have now? Two. The bigger apple is distinct and separate from the smaller slice, there is no refuting that. Thats Dvaita. Essentially, Advaita and Dvaita and two different ways of looking at the same thing. There is no conflict at all. Wonder what all that brouhaha over the ages was about.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
1258
1258. That’s the number of days that I have spent in Mumbai, in the current stint. What an eventful period this has been! New jobs, finding domestic bliss, beginning to ‘settle down’… The three and half odd years have not been without the fair share of thrills either. Floods, bomb blasts, riots, curfew (lived through it)… been there done it! The adventures have been several: jumping off a marooned local train in the middle of nowhere and wading through waist deep water, living through a curfew for four days (I was saved by the magnanimity of my kind landlady, who ensured that I got a regular supply of meals), riots replete with firing outside my apartment block, bomb blasts…
What a journey it has been, from the day I set foot at Chhatrapati Shivaji Domestic Terminal, with two bags of luggage! I remember walking along Marine Drive one of those early days, flinching at the unmistakable stench emanating from the sea. Not surprising, considering the waste of over twenty million and more humans pours into it! And yet, not more than a year later, I remember walking along the same path, enjoying the cool breeze blowing over the sea. That particular moment, I did not feel a stranger in the city any longer.
What a journey it has been, from the day I set foot at Chhatrapati Shivaji Domestic Terminal, with two bags of luggage! I remember walking along Marine Drive one of those early days, flinching at the unmistakable stench emanating from the sea. Not surprising, considering the waste of over twenty million and more humans pours into it! And yet, not more than a year later, I remember walking along the same path, enjoying the cool breeze blowing over the sea. That particular moment, I did not feel a stranger in the city any longer.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Coco-nutty
This one is for that heavenly drink that comes in green bundles – packaged by nature, served by your street corner nariyal paani walla. Widely spread across the sub-continent, the only common thing is the nomenclature – tender coconut. The similarities end there!
To start with there is the Sri Lankan variety – called King coconut. Bright orange in colour – like the rising sung – this large nut will easily quench the thirst of two people, and more. It is HUGE – king size. And intensely sweet. Its nothing like what is available in India. The malai or the flesh of the coconut is another treat – sweet and creamy (unless you opt for the mature nuts that have a thicker and tougher flesh), and a meal in itself.
Then there is the Indonesian variety, that I got to sample in Bali. The way the vendor opens the coconut is a work of art in itself. Four chops and the top does not fly off, like they do in Bangalore. Instead, off it comes in your hand like a lid off the tender coconut. The water tastes very similar to the ones in India, however, these are far larger and have probably thrice as much water. It appears that most firangs are not aware of the fact that the flesh of a coconut is edible – when we asked the vendor to remove the flesh for us, he simply handed us a spoon with a “help yourselves” look. Extracting the flesh with the spoon was naarikela paka, as referred to in Sanskrit literary circles, but it was abundant.
And there is the Bangkok variety. I am not sure if the vendor that I purchased it from had spiked it with alcohol, though he opened it in my presence, for it had a slightly fermented taste. It was not repulsive though – far from it, in fact. It was in a way, a voyage of discovery for the taste buds – a completely new taste and texture. Ah, how can I forget the texture – the water of the coconut had a velvety feel to it, not the creamy feel of the malai wala nariyal, or the watery feel of the paani wala nariyal. This was different – it was like the caress of the softest velvet. The flesh too retained the flavour, taste and texture of the water – though not as abundant as the King Coconut or the Balinese variety, it was more mature, thicker and tougher, but tasty nevertheless.
And now to the Indian variety – and how many of these are there! Right from the look and feel of the nut, to the way it is served and the taste – it differs across regions. First the Bangalore variety – large and bulky, you can opt for either the ganji (the equivalent of the Mumbaiya malai wala¸ or the variety with edible flesh) or neer (meaning paani wala, or watery one, with only the hard shell inside and no flesh) variety. It is cut open with powerful chops delivered with a large sickle that makes you look in awe at the dexterity of the vendor who does it with finesse, not harming a fingernail on his hands. The water in the ganji variety is sweet and that in the neer variety is flat, with a woody taste. This is common across regions – the more the flesh, the sweeter the water (and lesser in quantity!). The flesh is extracted in a similar fashion, by splitting the nut – shell coir and all – longitudinally, with the same power chops. A piece of the outer covering chopped off serves as a rudimentary scoop. Then there is the Mumbai variety. Smaller in size than the Bangalore variety, there are two sub-varieties, depending on the source of the nut. There is the Alibaug nut and there is the Gujarat nut. The Gujarat nuts are sweeter – with even the paani wala varieties being sweeter than in the rest of the country. The Alibaug nut has a flatter taste. In Mumbai, the nuts are opened with a very sharp kitchen knife; the tougher shell is cracked with a flat strip of iron a couple of millimeters thick. The small opening at the top is enlarged and a piece of the outer covering cut out to form an improvised scoop is used to extract the flesh through this opening. Did I say that the paani wala variety does not have edible flesh? Well, for those who like it, the shell of this variety of nuts has a crunchy layer, that can be cut and stripped with a knife – it tastes somewhat like the flesh of a raw singhada, with a woody tinge. Its supposed to be good for digestion and yes, I love it.
So its not for no reason that the coconut tree is called the kalpavriksha – the tree that grants all desires; I would go one step further – this is the tree that gives life – quenching the wayfarer’s thirst with drink and fruit.
To start with there is the Sri Lankan variety – called King coconut. Bright orange in colour – like the rising sung – this large nut will easily quench the thirst of two people, and more. It is HUGE – king size. And intensely sweet. Its nothing like what is available in India. The malai or the flesh of the coconut is another treat – sweet and creamy (unless you opt for the mature nuts that have a thicker and tougher flesh), and a meal in itself.
Then there is the Indonesian variety, that I got to sample in Bali. The way the vendor opens the coconut is a work of art in itself. Four chops and the top does not fly off, like they do in Bangalore. Instead, off it comes in your hand like a lid off the tender coconut. The water tastes very similar to the ones in India, however, these are far larger and have probably thrice as much water. It appears that most firangs are not aware of the fact that the flesh of a coconut is edible – when we asked the vendor to remove the flesh for us, he simply handed us a spoon with a “help yourselves” look. Extracting the flesh with the spoon was naarikela paka, as referred to in Sanskrit literary circles, but it was abundant.
And there is the Bangkok variety. I am not sure if the vendor that I purchased it from had spiked it with alcohol, though he opened it in my presence, for it had a slightly fermented taste. It was not repulsive though – far from it, in fact. It was in a way, a voyage of discovery for the taste buds – a completely new taste and texture. Ah, how can I forget the texture – the water of the coconut had a velvety feel to it, not the creamy feel of the malai wala nariyal, or the watery feel of the paani wala nariyal. This was different – it was like the caress of the softest velvet. The flesh too retained the flavour, taste and texture of the water – though not as abundant as the King Coconut or the Balinese variety, it was more mature, thicker and tougher, but tasty nevertheless.
And now to the Indian variety – and how many of these are there! Right from the look and feel of the nut, to the way it is served and the taste – it differs across regions. First the Bangalore variety – large and bulky, you can opt for either the ganji (the equivalent of the Mumbaiya malai wala¸ or the variety with edible flesh) or neer (meaning paani wala, or watery one, with only the hard shell inside and no flesh) variety. It is cut open with powerful chops delivered with a large sickle that makes you look in awe at the dexterity of the vendor who does it with finesse, not harming a fingernail on his hands. The water in the ganji variety is sweet and that in the neer variety is flat, with a woody taste. This is common across regions – the more the flesh, the sweeter the water (and lesser in quantity!). The flesh is extracted in a similar fashion, by splitting the nut – shell coir and all – longitudinally, with the same power chops. A piece of the outer covering chopped off serves as a rudimentary scoop. Then there is the Mumbai variety. Smaller in size than the Bangalore variety, there are two sub-varieties, depending on the source of the nut. There is the Alibaug nut and there is the Gujarat nut. The Gujarat nuts are sweeter – with even the paani wala varieties being sweeter than in the rest of the country. The Alibaug nut has a flatter taste. In Mumbai, the nuts are opened with a very sharp kitchen knife; the tougher shell is cracked with a flat strip of iron a couple of millimeters thick. The small opening at the top is enlarged and a piece of the outer covering cut out to form an improvised scoop is used to extract the flesh through this opening. Did I say that the paani wala variety does not have edible flesh? Well, for those who like it, the shell of this variety of nuts has a crunchy layer, that can be cut and stripped with a knife – it tastes somewhat like the flesh of a raw singhada, with a woody tinge. Its supposed to be good for digestion and yes, I love it.
So its not for no reason that the coconut tree is called the kalpavriksha – the tree that grants all desires; I would go one step further – this is the tree that gives life – quenching the wayfarer’s thirst with drink and fruit.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The whole and the part
Got this wonderful comment from M on my earlier post on Time travel, space time and the works. Too profound not to share.
In your posting on Time travel, space time and the works dated Wednesday, August 08, 2007 you have mentioned: “... purnasya purnamadaya purnamevava shishyate...Purna can be roughly translated as 'the whole', the translation being a far cry from the true meaning. Purna is the whole, the all encompassing ... the everything. In that sense, purna is nothing but the universe, because the universe is the whole, the all encompassing, the everything. Now, a translation of the verse would be: "if you remove the whole from the whole, the whole remains!" That is, if you remove the universe from the universe, you are left with the universe!”
There is another interpretation to this. Krsna has used this sloka in the Gita to describe to Arjuna how we all are united with the God in spirit. That our soul, that we, are nothing but Him. The Whole, the all encompassing, the everything, is God! The human soul has been formed out of Him, the Supreme. Therefore, applying the above sloka, we are HIM.
Let me make this simpler with an example. Consider an Apple. For the time being, the Apple (we’ll call it Apple1) is the Whole. Now, cut a portion out of this Whole Apple (say 1/4th) (we’ll call this portion Apple2). Now what happens??? If you ignore the quantitative aspect (whereby you are left with 2 apple pieces) and concentrate ONLY on the qualitative aspect, you will see that the Apple1 is still, in essence, an Apple though a portion has been removed from it; whereas now Apple2 as also become an Apple (as it now has the standalone essence of an Apple in itself). Thus, when you removed a part from the Whole (ie our Apple) the Whole still remains the Whole and the part also has become the Whole. Once again, I urge you to concentrate only on the qualitative aspect of this.
Apply this example to the human soul. Let God be the Whole. The human soul is formed out of Him. While a part of Him has been transformed into the human soul, He still remains the Whole; and by virtue of having a part of his essence in us, we too have become the Whole – Him!
Let’s take this to the next level now. And let’s take our Apple1 again – the Whole. Beat it into a pulp. What happens? It becomes Apple pulp. What if instead of pulp, you decided to make juice out of it? Then it becomes Apple juice. How about a milk shake? Or tarts? Then we’d end up with Apple milkshake or Apple tart. No matter what you do to the Apple, it always retains its basic essence; that of being an apple! The Whole! An apple seed will always sprout only into an apple tree – never into a coconut tree!
Now consider the processes we performed on the Apple (viz beating into pulp, making juice, milkshake, tarts, etc). The Apple has to bear the brunt of the process performed on it and will hence take the next external form accordingly (as pulp, liquid, solid, etc). But no matter what process is performed, the Apple NEVER EVER loses its essence (that of being an Apple)! Akin the processes performed on the Apple to the actions performed by us, humans – our Karma. Our soul too has to bear the brunt of our actions, our Karma, and in the next birth it will take form accordingly. Hence, depending on our actions, we will be born as higher mortals or lower mortals (such as animals). But, alike the Apple, our soul never ever loses the essence of being Him!
This leads to the most conclusive proof that we all are indeed truly and closely attached to God! We ARE Him! And He IS us!
Krsna has beautifully summarized into a few words the greatest knowledge that a man can ever aspire to learn!!!! May this knowledge be with us and lead us to realizing our true selves!
Om shantih shantih shantih!!!
In your posting on Time travel, space time and the works dated Wednesday, August 08, 2007 you have mentioned: “... purnasya purnamadaya purnamevava shishyate...Purna can be roughly translated as 'the whole', the translation being a far cry from the true meaning. Purna is the whole, the all encompassing ... the everything. In that sense, purna is nothing but the universe, because the universe is the whole, the all encompassing, the everything. Now, a translation of the verse would be: "if you remove the whole from the whole, the whole remains!" That is, if you remove the universe from the universe, you are left with the universe!”
There is another interpretation to this. Krsna has used this sloka in the Gita to describe to Arjuna how we all are united with the God in spirit. That our soul, that we, are nothing but Him. The Whole, the all encompassing, the everything, is God! The human soul has been formed out of Him, the Supreme. Therefore, applying the above sloka, we are HIM.
Let me make this simpler with an example. Consider an Apple. For the time being, the Apple (we’ll call it Apple1) is the Whole. Now, cut a portion out of this Whole Apple (say 1/4th) (we’ll call this portion Apple2). Now what happens??? If you ignore the quantitative aspect (whereby you are left with 2 apple pieces) and concentrate ONLY on the qualitative aspect, you will see that the Apple1 is still, in essence, an Apple though a portion has been removed from it; whereas now Apple2 as also become an Apple (as it now has the standalone essence of an Apple in itself). Thus, when you removed a part from the Whole (ie our Apple) the Whole still remains the Whole and the part also has become the Whole. Once again, I urge you to concentrate only on the qualitative aspect of this.
Apply this example to the human soul. Let God be the Whole. The human soul is formed out of Him. While a part of Him has been transformed into the human soul, He still remains the Whole; and by virtue of having a part of his essence in us, we too have become the Whole – Him!
Let’s take this to the next level now. And let’s take our Apple1 again – the Whole. Beat it into a pulp. What happens? It becomes Apple pulp. What if instead of pulp, you decided to make juice out of it? Then it becomes Apple juice. How about a milk shake? Or tarts? Then we’d end up with Apple milkshake or Apple tart. No matter what you do to the Apple, it always retains its basic essence; that of being an apple! The Whole! An apple seed will always sprout only into an apple tree – never into a coconut tree!
Now consider the processes we performed on the Apple (viz beating into pulp, making juice, milkshake, tarts, etc). The Apple has to bear the brunt of the process performed on it and will hence take the next external form accordingly (as pulp, liquid, solid, etc). But no matter what process is performed, the Apple NEVER EVER loses its essence (that of being an Apple)! Akin the processes performed on the Apple to the actions performed by us, humans – our Karma. Our soul too has to bear the brunt of our actions, our Karma, and in the next birth it will take form accordingly. Hence, depending on our actions, we will be born as higher mortals or lower mortals (such as animals). But, alike the Apple, our soul never ever loses the essence of being Him!
This leads to the most conclusive proof that we all are indeed truly and closely attached to God! We ARE Him! And He IS us!
Krsna has beautifully summarized into a few words the greatest knowledge that a man can ever aspire to learn!!!! May this knowledge be with us and lead us to realizing our true selves!
Om shantih shantih shantih!!!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Of "the whole and the part"
Received this comment from Meenal on my post Time travel, space time and the works; it is so thought provoking that I had to post it in full. Here goes...
In your posting on Time travel, space time and the works dated Wednesday, August 08, 2007 you have mentioned: "... purnasya purnamadaya purnamevava shishyate...Purna can be roughly translated as 'the whole', the translation being a far cry from the true meaning. Purna is the whole, the all encompassing ... the everything. In that sense, purna is nothing but the universe, because the universe is the whole, the all encompassing, the everything. Now, a translation of the verse would be: "if you remove the whole from the whole, the whole remains!" That is, if you remove the universe from the universe, you are left with the universe!"
There is another interpretation to this. Krsna has used this sloka in the Gita to describe to Arjuna how we all are united with the God in spirit. That our soul, that we, are nothing but Him. The Whole, the all encompassing, the everything, is God! The human soul has been formed out of Him, the Supreme. Therefore, applying the above sloka, we are HIM.
Let me make this simpler with an example. Consider an Apple. For the time being, the Apple (we’ll call it Apple1) is the Whole. Now, cut a portion out of this Whole Apple (say 1/4th) (we'll call this portion Apple2). Now what happens??? If you ignore the quantitative aspect (whereby you are left with 2 apple pieces) and concentrate ONLY on the qualitative aspect, you will see that the Apple1 is still, in essence, an Apple though a portion has been removed from it; whereas now Apple2 as also become an Apple (as it now has the standalone essence of an Apple in itself). Thus, when you removed a part from the Whole (ie our Apple) the Whole still remains the Whole and the part also has become the Whole. Once again, I urge you to concentrate only on the qualitative aspect of this.
Apply this example to the human soul. Let God be the Whole. The human soul is formed out of Him. While a part of Him has been transformed into the human soul, He still remains the Whole; and by virtue of having a part of his essence in us, we too have become the Whole – Him!
Let’s take this to the next level now. And let's take our Apple1 again – the Whole. Beat it into a pulp. What happens? It becomes Apple pulp. What if instead of pulp, you decided to make juice out of it? Then it becomes Apple juice. How about a milk shake? Or tarts? Then we'd end up with Apple milkshake or Apple tart. No matter what you do to the Apple, it always retains its basic essence; that of being an apple! The Whole! An apple seed will always sprout only into an apple tree – never into a coconut tree!
Now consider the processes we performed on the Apple (viz beating into pulp, making juice, milkshake, tarts, etc). The Apple has to bear the brunt of the process performed on it and will hence take the next external form accordingly (as pulp, liquid, solid, etc). But no matter what process is performed, the Apple NEVER EVER loses its essence (that of being an Apple)! Akin the processes performed on the Apple to the actions performed by us, humans – our Karma. Our soul too has to bear the brunt of our actions, our Karma, and in the next birth it will take form accordingly. Hence, depending on our actions, we will be born as higher mortals or lower mortals (such as animals). But, alike the Apple, our soul never ever loses the essence of being Him!
This leads to the most conclusive proof that we all are indeed truly and closely attached to God! We ARE Him! And He IS us!
Krsna has beautifully summarized into a few words the greatest knowledge that a man can ever aspire to learn!!!! May this knowledge be with us and lead us to realizing our true selves!
Om shantih shantih shantih!!!
In your posting on Time travel, space time and the works dated Wednesday, August 08, 2007 you have mentioned: "... purnasya purnamadaya purnamevava shishyate...Purna can be roughly translated as 'the whole', the translation being a far cry from the true meaning. Purna is the whole, the all encompassing ... the everything. In that sense, purna is nothing but the universe, because the universe is the whole, the all encompassing, the everything. Now, a translation of the verse would be: "if you remove the whole from the whole, the whole remains!" That is, if you remove the universe from the universe, you are left with the universe!"
There is another interpretation to this. Krsna has used this sloka in the Gita to describe to Arjuna how we all are united with the God in spirit. That our soul, that we, are nothing but Him. The Whole, the all encompassing, the everything, is God! The human soul has been formed out of Him, the Supreme. Therefore, applying the above sloka, we are HIM.
Let me make this simpler with an example. Consider an Apple. For the time being, the Apple (we’ll call it Apple1) is the Whole. Now, cut a portion out of this Whole Apple (say 1/4th) (we'll call this portion Apple2). Now what happens??? If you ignore the quantitative aspect (whereby you are left with 2 apple pieces) and concentrate ONLY on the qualitative aspect, you will see that the Apple1 is still, in essence, an Apple though a portion has been removed from it; whereas now Apple2 as also become an Apple (as it now has the standalone essence of an Apple in itself). Thus, when you removed a part from the Whole (ie our Apple) the Whole still remains the Whole and the part also has become the Whole. Once again, I urge you to concentrate only on the qualitative aspect of this.
Apply this example to the human soul. Let God be the Whole. The human soul is formed out of Him. While a part of Him has been transformed into the human soul, He still remains the Whole; and by virtue of having a part of his essence in us, we too have become the Whole – Him!
Let’s take this to the next level now. And let's take our Apple1 again – the Whole. Beat it into a pulp. What happens? It becomes Apple pulp. What if instead of pulp, you decided to make juice out of it? Then it becomes Apple juice. How about a milk shake? Or tarts? Then we'd end up with Apple milkshake or Apple tart. No matter what you do to the Apple, it always retains its basic essence; that of being an apple! The Whole! An apple seed will always sprout only into an apple tree – never into a coconut tree!
Now consider the processes we performed on the Apple (viz beating into pulp, making juice, milkshake, tarts, etc). The Apple has to bear the brunt of the process performed on it and will hence take the next external form accordingly (as pulp, liquid, solid, etc). But no matter what process is performed, the Apple NEVER EVER loses its essence (that of being an Apple)! Akin the processes performed on the Apple to the actions performed by us, humans – our Karma. Our soul too has to bear the brunt of our actions, our Karma, and in the next birth it will take form accordingly. Hence, depending on our actions, we will be born as higher mortals or lower mortals (such as animals). But, alike the Apple, our soul never ever loses the essence of being Him!
This leads to the most conclusive proof that we all are indeed truly and closely attached to God! We ARE Him! And He IS us!
Krsna has beautifully summarized into a few words the greatest knowledge that a man can ever aspire to learn!!!! May this knowledge be with us and lead us to realizing our true selves!
Om shantih shantih shantih!!!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Time travel unravelled
Time travel has always intrigued me. Be it Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which states that the faster you travel, the slower time moves, or HG Wells' Time Machine, the possibility of time travel itself is exciting!
Let me share the result of my recent thought experiments:
We know from our physics textbooks that the faster you travel, the slower time moves. i.e., if you travel faster than the speed of light, you can travel back in time. Find it difficult to believe? Here's how:
Imagine that you are taking off from the earth in a super speed rocket. For simplicity's sake, imagine that your body itself is the rocket and you are moving away from the earth, into space. After moving several million miles into space away from earth, you reach the speed of light, and move forward at that constant speed. Now, at the precise moment (lets call this z)when you achieved the speed of light, certain light beams emitted by the earth were right next to you i.e., you were neck to neck with those light particles, which portrayed a scene of the earth at time n. Lets call this scene s. In the next one second, you have travelled 300,000 kms which is the speed of light. The scene s has also travelled the same distance with you! So it you look at the earth at z + 1 seconds, you see the same scene that you would have seen at z! This is because the scene has moved with you! If you continue to move at the same speed, you continue to see the same scene! Its as if time has stopped!
Let me extend this thought experiment further. Imagine you are travelling at twice the speed of light. Now, as you move ahead, you are overtaking the light particles! So, at z+1, you will watch a scene that is equivalent to z - 1. If you continue at this speed, you will progressively overtake light particles and will progressively watch the scenes in reverse! Which means, you will see the earth rotate from west to east! IT'S AS IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING BACK IN TIME!
Are you with me so far? Good! Now let me introduce a twist in the tale. All this while, I told you that you were moving away from the earth. Imagine now that you spontaneously turn around and move toward the earth. As you move toward the earth (say faster than the speed of light), the light particles overtake you. This means you again see the earth moving from east to west, but at a faster rate than what the physics text books say. i.e., if a is the moment of time when you turned around spontaneously, at a+1, you will see the scene from a+2! The faster you move toward the earth, the faster these scenes will hit you. The earth will now appear to whir rapidly from east to west. Its as if you are catching up with the backlog of time (remember - you were moving back in time till now). Its as if you are moving forward in time! By the time you are back on earth, you are at that precise moment that you would have been, had you not undertaken your space odyssey! (This is an important result, as it resolves the grandfather paradox - we will get back to this later).
Let me now extend the second part of the above experiment further. We have noticed that when you moved toward the earth faster than light, you moved forward in time. So, instead of moving toward the earth, had you moved toward the Andromeda galaxy, you would have been moving forward in time with respect to the Andromeda Galaxy! Which means behind your back you were moving back in time and on the front, you were moving forward in time! This sounds absurd, how is it that the same person can move both forward and backward in time at the same time? Actually, its not that absurd. Imagine a line connecting points E and A. Now, imagine you are an ant walking along that line, from E towards A. As you walk from E to A, you move away from E and towards A. Wow! This means behind your back you are moving away from E and on the front, you are moving toward A! See the connect between moving from E to A and Earth to Andromeda Galaxy??
You still with me? Good. Now for some complications.
We have described what happens when we move in a straight line. What if, instead of moving away from the earth, you moved around the earth, circling it? With one complete circumnavigation, you are back at the same point where you started. So, you moved away from point X and moved toward point X, at once! So when you land back at X, are you ahead in time? Or have you moved back in time? The answer is neither! You will actually be in the present i.e., where you would have been had you not traveled at all! That’s for another post!
Confusing? Its actually quite simple. Remember that in our earlier example, we moved away from the earth in a straight line and turned around to move back in a straight line. The result, you were back where you were supposed to be. Effectively, you moved, turned, returned, completing a loop. A circumnavigation of the earth is also a loop! Its just that instead of moving in a thin oblong loop, you have now moved in a wider, elliptical loop! So, you started from Mumbai, India, moved west until you hit say Mexico, and returned. Just that instead of retracing the path, you instead continued around the earth! So, how is that different from our oblong loop? Not convinced? Let me explain further. We have established that as we move away from a given spot, we move back in time and as we move toward a given spot, we move ahead in time. If you are starting from point X on the equator in your world tour, as you move away from it, you are moving back in time vis-à-vis point X. After you are halfway around the earth, if you continue moving along the equator, you are in effect moving toward X. Which means, you are moving ahead in time vis-à-vis X! With every step that you take towards X, you cancel out the time lag and catch up with time, such that when you reach X, you are exactly at the moment that you would have been, had you not moved at all!
Now back to the grandfather paradox of time travel that I said is resolved. This is the grandfather paradox: imagine I travel back in time and kill my grandfather. Since my grandfather is dead, there is no way that I could have been born. If I was not born at all, then how did I go back in time and kill my grandfather in the first place? So, if I did not kill my grandfather, then I am born and hence can go back in time to kill the grandfather! The loop continues. From our explanation above, we have demonstrated that you can only “view” the past, but not affect it! This means, you can go back in time and see your grandfather, but can’t shake hands with him. The same holds for your grandfather – he can see you, but can’t hug you! Can you hear what he is saying? My guess is you can’t. Neither can you smell the aroma of the rich coffee he is brewing on the stove.
I do not know if my theories above stand up to the scrutiny of the equations and theories of higher physics. This thought experiment has however, given an incomparable joy…. the kind of joy that I experienced when I tallied my first balance sheet. Is this close to ananda???
Let me share the result of my recent thought experiments:
We know from our physics textbooks that the faster you travel, the slower time moves. i.e., if you travel faster than the speed of light, you can travel back in time. Find it difficult to believe? Here's how:
Imagine that you are taking off from the earth in a super speed rocket. For simplicity's sake, imagine that your body itself is the rocket and you are moving away from the earth, into space. After moving several million miles into space away from earth, you reach the speed of light, and move forward at that constant speed. Now, at the precise moment (lets call this z)when you achieved the speed of light, certain light beams emitted by the earth were right next to you i.e., you were neck to neck with those light particles, which portrayed a scene of the earth at time n. Lets call this scene s. In the next one second, you have travelled 300,000 kms which is the speed of light. The scene s has also travelled the same distance with you! So it you look at the earth at z + 1 seconds, you see the same scene that you would have seen at z! This is because the scene has moved with you! If you continue to move at the same speed, you continue to see the same scene! Its as if time has stopped!
Let me extend this thought experiment further. Imagine you are travelling at twice the speed of light. Now, as you move ahead, you are overtaking the light particles! So, at z+1, you will watch a scene that is equivalent to z - 1. If you continue at this speed, you will progressively overtake light particles and will progressively watch the scenes in reverse! Which means, you will see the earth rotate from west to east! IT'S AS IF YOU ARE TRAVELLING BACK IN TIME!
Are you with me so far? Good! Now let me introduce a twist in the tale. All this while, I told you that you were moving away from the earth. Imagine now that you spontaneously turn around and move toward the earth. As you move toward the earth (say faster than the speed of light), the light particles overtake you. This means you again see the earth moving from east to west, but at a faster rate than what the physics text books say. i.e., if a is the moment of time when you turned around spontaneously, at a+1, you will see the scene from a+2! The faster you move toward the earth, the faster these scenes will hit you. The earth will now appear to whir rapidly from east to west. Its as if you are catching up with the backlog of time (remember - you were moving back in time till now). Its as if you are moving forward in time! By the time you are back on earth, you are at that precise moment that you would have been, had you not undertaken your space odyssey! (This is an important result, as it resolves the grandfather paradox - we will get back to this later).
Let me now extend the second part of the above experiment further. We have noticed that when you moved toward the earth faster than light, you moved forward in time. So, instead of moving toward the earth, had you moved toward the Andromeda galaxy, you would have been moving forward in time with respect to the Andromeda Galaxy! Which means behind your back you were moving back in time and on the front, you were moving forward in time! This sounds absurd, how is it that the same person can move both forward and backward in time at the same time? Actually, its not that absurd. Imagine a line connecting points E and A. Now, imagine you are an ant walking along that line, from E towards A. As you walk from E to A, you move away from E and towards A. Wow! This means behind your back you are moving away from E and on the front, you are moving toward A! See the connect between moving from E to A and Earth to Andromeda Galaxy??
You still with me? Good. Now for some complications.
We have described what happens when we move in a straight line. What if, instead of moving away from the earth, you moved around the earth, circling it? With one complete circumnavigation, you are back at the same point where you started. So, you moved away from point X and moved toward point X, at once! So when you land back at X, are you ahead in time? Or have you moved back in time? The answer is neither! You will actually be in the present i.e., where you would have been had you not traveled at all! That’s for another post!
Confusing? Its actually quite simple. Remember that in our earlier example, we moved away from the earth in a straight line and turned around to move back in a straight line. The result, you were back where you were supposed to be. Effectively, you moved, turned, returned, completing a loop. A circumnavigation of the earth is also a loop! Its just that instead of moving in a thin oblong loop, you have now moved in a wider, elliptical loop! So, you started from Mumbai, India, moved west until you hit say Mexico, and returned. Just that instead of retracing the path, you instead continued around the earth! So, how is that different from our oblong loop? Not convinced? Let me explain further. We have established that as we move away from a given spot, we move back in time and as we move toward a given spot, we move ahead in time. If you are starting from point X on the equator in your world tour, as you move away from it, you are moving back in time vis-à-vis point X. After you are halfway around the earth, if you continue moving along the equator, you are in effect moving toward X. Which means, you are moving ahead in time vis-à-vis X! With every step that you take towards X, you cancel out the time lag and catch up with time, such that when you reach X, you are exactly at the moment that you would have been, had you not moved at all!
Now back to the grandfather paradox of time travel that I said is resolved. This is the grandfather paradox: imagine I travel back in time and kill my grandfather. Since my grandfather is dead, there is no way that I could have been born. If I was not born at all, then how did I go back in time and kill my grandfather in the first place? So, if I did not kill my grandfather, then I am born and hence can go back in time to kill the grandfather! The loop continues. From our explanation above, we have demonstrated that you can only “view” the past, but not affect it! This means, you can go back in time and see your grandfather, but can’t shake hands with him. The same holds for your grandfather – he can see you, but can’t hug you! Can you hear what he is saying? My guess is you can’t. Neither can you smell the aroma of the rich coffee he is brewing on the stove.
I do not know if my theories above stand up to the scrutiny of the equations and theories of higher physics. This thought experiment has however, given an incomparable joy…. the kind of joy that I experienced when I tallied my first balance sheet. Is this close to ananda???
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Time travel, space time and the works
Meenal has lent me a wonderful book: Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. This is probably the most thought provoking book that I've read in recent times. Thanks Meenal, for introducing me to this book that has caused me to sit up, think, ask tons of questions and find the answers.
In this book, Michio Kaku simplifies such heavy technical concepts as space - time curve, quantum physics, quarks, mesons, bosons etc., and puts them within the grasp of the common man. If he could make a technically challenged person like me understand concepts of higher physics, then anyone else can understand them too.
This book in a way explains and proves concepts that our rishis have spelt out in the shastras aeons ago, though without any direct reference. A few, which are my personal favourites:
... purnasya purnamadaya purnamevava shishyate...
Purna can be roughly translated as 'the whole', the translation being a far cry from the true meaning. Purna is the whole, the all encompassing ... the everything. In that sense, purna is nothing but the universe, because the universe is the whole, the all encompassing, the everything. Now, a translation of the verse would be: "if you remove the whole from the whole, the whole remains!" That is, if you remove the universe from the universe, you are left with the universe! Which means that if you step out of the universe, you have a universe! Another universe??? Out pops the concept of parallel universes in different dimensions!
You thought that the Big Bang was propounded by the modern western physicists??? Nah! Our shastras have this to describe the origin of the universe:
... hiranya garbhat samavartatagre...
which translates as "arising from the golden womb"... everything emerged from that one mass of energy / matter (hiranyagarbha)
How did our ancient rishis discover these concepts? Thats in a later installment. Watch this space.
Om shantih shantih shantih!!!
In this book, Michio Kaku simplifies such heavy technical concepts as space - time curve, quantum physics, quarks, mesons, bosons etc., and puts them within the grasp of the common man. If he could make a technically challenged person like me understand concepts of higher physics, then anyone else can understand them too.
This book in a way explains and proves concepts that our rishis have spelt out in the shastras aeons ago, though without any direct reference. A few, which are my personal favourites:
... purnasya purnamadaya purnamevava shishyate...
Purna can be roughly translated as 'the whole', the translation being a far cry from the true meaning. Purna is the whole, the all encompassing ... the everything. In that sense, purna is nothing but the universe, because the universe is the whole, the all encompassing, the everything. Now, a translation of the verse would be: "if you remove the whole from the whole, the whole remains!" That is, if you remove the universe from the universe, you are left with the universe! Which means that if you step out of the universe, you have a universe! Another universe??? Out pops the concept of parallel universes in different dimensions!
You thought that the Big Bang was propounded by the modern western physicists??? Nah! Our shastras have this to describe the origin of the universe:
... hiranya garbhat samavartatagre...
which translates as "arising from the golden womb"... everything emerged from that one mass of energy / matter (hiranyagarbha)
How did our ancient rishis discover these concepts? Thats in a later installment. Watch this space.
Om shantih shantih shantih!!!
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Maa nishaada..
These immortal words from the opening verse of that epic of epics Ramayana come to mind as I muse on the materiality of mundane existence. Not because my inner voice - that little fellow who sits on my shoulder by my ear whispering things with a mind of his own - tells me to do goodly deeds, but more from a sense of putting a lazy saturday afternoon to better use than lounging in front of my PC and surfing arbit sites.
Nearly a third of a century and a couple of inches hairline hence, the mind, like that of countless young people (I take the liberty of calling myself young!), continues to look for the all elusive wowsecond similar to Rishi Valmiki's witnessing the heartless killing of the krauncha bird couple that led to an outpouring of anguish and the consquent composition of the Ramayana.
And then, as the dark clouds lift from the heart, a story long forgotten and filed away in some deep corner of the brain flashes. It is the story of a little girl who cried 'wow!' when a gust of breeze wafted off her pretty balloon to the heavens. A flood of memories rush in, each a wowsecond, a sliver of life when all else but the beauty of life is forgotten. Like the rainy afternoon last July, while walking along the Worli seaface thinking depressing thoughts about the long evening of work ahead, a large wave crashed against the seawall, bursting spray all over me; in the wowsecond that followed, my eyes opened to notice a bunch of urchins jump with joy as each crashing wave drenched them in surf, a family with the car parked by the roadside enjoying the strong gusts and the occasional spray from a distance, the early evening sun no more than a silver plate through thick clouds....
Many such memories from my yet short life jostle for space... I turn on the music, playing hits from the movie Rang de Basanti, and turn around for a serious chat with my colleague about this assignment that we are working on in the office...
Nearly a third of a century and a couple of inches hairline hence, the mind, like that of countless young people (I take the liberty of calling myself young!), continues to look for the all elusive wowsecond similar to Rishi Valmiki's witnessing the heartless killing of the krauncha bird couple that led to an outpouring of anguish and the consquent composition of the Ramayana.
And then, as the dark clouds lift from the heart, a story long forgotten and filed away in some deep corner of the brain flashes. It is the story of a little girl who cried 'wow!' when a gust of breeze wafted off her pretty balloon to the heavens. A flood of memories rush in, each a wowsecond, a sliver of life when all else but the beauty of life is forgotten. Like the rainy afternoon last July, while walking along the Worli seaface thinking depressing thoughts about the long evening of work ahead, a large wave crashed against the seawall, bursting spray all over me; in the wowsecond that followed, my eyes opened to notice a bunch of urchins jump with joy as each crashing wave drenched them in surf, a family with the car parked by the roadside enjoying the strong gusts and the occasional spray from a distance, the early evening sun no more than a silver plate through thick clouds....
Many such memories from my yet short life jostle for space... I turn on the music, playing hits from the movie Rang de Basanti, and turn around for a serious chat with my colleague about this assignment that we are working on in the office...
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