The Untitled Story(the beginning!)

“The flash lights don’t work either..” Mark, call sign Beagle, said as he entered the opening of the cavern. Mentally, his eyes were still adjusting to the abrupt dark that set in with the night coming in for the first time in days. The binary system of Unatute stars ensured that this G-class planet had night once every six days. It played hell with the weather patterns, causing huge storms that lasted for months. That this planet had ever survived the formation of the binary system was still a mystery that threw academia into a tempest when it was discovered.

Two years ago, the planning for this expedition had started. Unatute was part of Phase Six space, eventually to be terraformed into an industrial planet for the dynasties that currently controlled the affairs of the Space Confederation formed in the early 22^nd century. Nearly 450 years had passed since its formation when its founder Zachary Wolf had discovered the hyper wormholes. By latching on to tachyons, the user could be transported from one place to another within the space of seconds according to Earth time, now an anachronism on many planets. With people now settling across the galaxy, Earth was just another planet, albeit the cultural centre of the Galaxy. Space Confederation was like any other bureaucracy, now large and unwieldy controlled by the few that could afford the luxury of appointing the men and women to agencies of their choice. With all the planets of the Confederation pledging allegiance to it, the Confederation directly controlled the lives of a quintillion people now spread out over a sector of the Galaxy.

The discovery of Unatute I and II had spawned a widespread intellectual tumult in that by all known laws of physics, the planet should not have existed, yet there it was, as if in cosmic defiance to all that could care. Its shape too perfectly round, and featureless save for a cavern that existed on the far side of the planet. In all respects the planet was stationary and was there as if the stars revolved around it. An expedition was eventually planned and launched by the Confederation in due course towards the planet.

“Beagle, I read you. Check and use thermal imagers, see if you can find anything. Scan all frequencies. Something is causing this electrical storm, and I don’t think it’s the weather. This is Mitt, out.” Mitt Rowell was the commander of the mission. This was supposed to be a routine run of the mill mission on exploration of a planet and its attributes. He had a wide experience of those, and they had almost always ended the same way, in most cases the planet being very docile and ready for terraforming.

“Negative on all frequencies, sir. I am switching over to sub space transmitting frequencies. Nothing here either. The quantum signatures are not registering on any modules. I will attempt to move inside and report from there. Will maintain an open comm link to report.” Mark said as he switched his sensors on. After thirty minutes of walking into the cavern, he switched off the sensors. “Sir, negative on all readings still, will return to shuttlecraft and wait for further developments after the storm. This is Beagle out.”

“Beagle, I read you. Maintain an open comm link throughout the storm, we do not wish to lose your coordinates due to the energy pulses emanating from the storm.”

“Yes, sir. I understand. Will catch you on the flip side of the storm sir. Wait a minute, I am picking up something on the subspace scanners. Switching to active, hold steady.” Beagle’s voice emanated over the comm link. “Its some sort of code and its repetitive, sir. I am uplinking the signal to the command module sir. See if the computer can analyze it.”

“Beagle, advised to maintain position and transmit. Receiving signal, now. Computer, analyze the signal for any known messages. Run it through the Loki-Nuth Algorithm.”

“Captain, I am picking up large amounts of quantum fluctuations in the subspace arrays. Advise that we put our shields up.” the ship engineer called out over the link.

“Very well, shields up. Go to red alert status.” Mitt was fully alert now, and at the helm during this time. This was his first red alert status that he had ever ordered but training and discipline from his training days at Earth, it came automatically to him. “Lt. Commander, bring back Beagle to the ship, and take us out of orbit.”

“Yes, sir. Beaming Beagle back to the ship. Beagle, stand by.” As soon as Mark was back on the ship, he came to see the Captain.

“Captain, inside the cavern I saw something that should not have been there, and I did not wish to transmit over the comm link. Sir, you remember the part of the Confederation’s code dealing with time travelling and what to do in case we encounter members from the future?” Mark asked him.

“But, that was just mumbo jumbo from some hare brained scientist, who didn’t know what he was saying and they ratified it as it is really nonsense. Time travel does not exist and is not possible. I know what all the stories and the strange theories predict that some day it might be possible but I don’t see how it could be relevant in this case.” Mitt replied, surprised that a crew member would even bring up such a clause of the Code.

“Sir, this is in the strictest of the confidences that I tell you this. I saw a ship inside the cavern. It looked old and disabled, larger than any ship in the Confederation. It looked abandoned and was just hanging there. No lights, no subspace communications, nothing on the scanners for life. Also the scanners picked up that no one had been inside this cavern for over a million years. Sir, a million years ago, humans were closer to their ape compatriots.

“That’s ridiculous. The scanners must be wrong. Send me what you found.” Mitt thought back to the time he reported an anomaly on Mars, the first true colony of Earth. Green cadet that he was, his shipmates played a trick on him by reprogramming his scanners to show a large invasion force from an unknown alien, apparently hostile and destroying the planet. In the confusion, he never looked out the window to see all was fine on the surface of the planet. He trusted the scanners to do what they were doing. He raised alert levels on all planets to high levels and the entire defence force was mobilized in seconds only to find a cadet who was scared not to look out his own window. From then on he decided to trust his instincts rather than what the machines showed. Old fashioned thinking though that might be, after the fiasco, he rapidly rose through the ranks to the point where there weren’t many people left to remind of this particular story. “What’s the status of the storm? Give me updates, I want all heads in on this.”

“Captain, this is Beagle. The storm is holding still as if to cover the cavern. The quantum fluctuations are increasing. In a few moments, I will have to leave this position sir. My scanners report all normal. I am uploading the data now.”

As Mitt went through the data, he was shocked to find that this was real. There was a ship there in the cavern.

“Captain, the ship appears to be moving. It’s moving to portside. Hold on. I will try to get a visual of the ship. The scanners are going crazy. I have never seen anything like this before. The readings are off the scale. The ship appears to be powering up. I am now within visual range of the ship. There is some red light that seems to be emanating from it. I am trying to get a reading, sir. I ...”

A loud explosion rocked the vessel as Mitt was thrown to side. Warning lights flashed all around him, as he tried to stand up.

“Comm, what the hell is going on?”

History Revisited!

I got an argument against history from my friend that there is an opportunity cost to everything we do. The time that we spend in doing something, could be used in doing something else more profitable or more time worthy I suppose. She argued that learning history, going through books and all, were time taken away from other things like academics (I mean getting higher in school and all which is a commendable goal despite what the cynics might have to say about the education system), athletics (being more fit), or having fun with friends (hanging out and having a life in general I suppose).

Anyway, to refute these points one by one, I want to first state that people have different goals in life. Each of the above categories, people give different weightage to depending on their goals. Some might give entirely to academics, some to sports and some to hanging out. So depending on what you want to do, reading etc, will always have an opportunity cost. Since it does occupy time, it will always prevent you from doing something else. But isn’t that true of all activities? Will not every activity have an opportunity cost with this reasoning? However, reading about history I want to argue that its opportunity cost is much lower. History is one way of learning to sift through myth and reality, which is pretty important for any businessman who has to read a multitude of reports. The ability to summarize entire texts within a coherent brief of a couple of pages is very important in today’s world of infinite knowledge. This can be pointed out by the fact that HP’s former CEO Carly Fioriana was a major in Medieval History, and she did relate to this skill when she explained her success as a CEO. In athletics, or physical development, history isn’t all that important, but don’t we always like to know about the sport we play? Wouldn’t we want to about the greats that played the game and how the game evolved over time? Isn’t that a way of enjoying the game itself? Sure, there would be an opportunity cost of not playing the game, but would you be playing 24x7 that there would be no time left during the day? I mean most of the knowledge you pick up by watching tv which you do retain, and I don’t think that this would be major inconvenience of any sort to learning. And then hanging out in general, again it is not a 24x7 job that would force you to not have any time to yourself. There are 24 hours in a day and life is too short to spend it sleeping. I think longer than 7-8 hours a days is indulgence which has a higher opportunity cost than anything else. With average work being around 10 hours a day, that leaves about 8-9 hours a day free which I am sure increasing your general knowledge and a little about history shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. Besides that, we all have history and all taught to us during our school years and if we can relate what we learn in class and retain a part of it, (which also increases your academic knowledge at any rate), that would be quite a knowledge base to begin with. Although there is an opportunity cost attached to this, considering that we use only about a small percentage of our brains at any rate, I don’t think this would cause an overload at any rate. Also, a lot of history can be learnt by just reading the newspaper everyday and relating what you know to what is happening in the world today. A question of relating events more than anything else to understanding foreign policy of various nations, for example the fight in Ossetia in Russia and the Russian response to the insurgency, the blunted American protests in response. Also we can relate more to what’s happening in the world through what we know especially in a world where cross country borders are becoming more lines in the minds of academicians as today’s technologies bring the world much closer to each other.

Personally, I don’t think it was a high opportunity cost in learning history, which is totally unrelated to my field of choice which was engineering. I still did well academically, played sports, hung out with friends and did many more activities. I may not have done too well, but I don’t think I would blame my excessive if not obsessive book reading mania for that. There were probably other reasons for not doing too well, but this was one of my ways to escape the confines of reality and let my imagination take me away…Its like the song, Overkill, “I can’t get to sleep, I think about the implications of diving in too deep, and possible the complications, especially at night, I worry over situations, I know will be alright, perhaps its just imagination. Day after day it reappears, Night after night, my heartbeat shows the fear..Goes to be here and fade away, Come back another day… (This is for my friend that gave this argument than anything else).  

Empty homes and history!!

Ok, simple enough explanation for this title I suppose. The short story, I am writing this as I sit in my empty home now, devoid of all furniture and electronics, books and shelves, an empty home. Anyway, I can’t help feel sad that this is the last time I will look upon this place and see it no more. Rather from Edgar Allen’s poem, The Raven… “Quoth the raven nevermore”. Or could be the Green Day’s song Time of your Life… “Its something unpredictable but in the end is right, I hope you had the time of your life” Looking back over the last five years that I lived here, well not exactly “lived” considering that four years I have spent in a hostel, yet there was the knowledge, that yes, there was a place I could go back to… Now I am civil engineer without a home… Where’s the irony in that? Anyway, getting back to more saner things in life… Anyway, I was having a long conversation with one of my good friends, namely Tulika, on the importance of history… I mean why is it important? How does something, someone did a long time ago affect our daily lives? I am probably sure that everyone can get on through life without knowing any history at all as well…But as an ardent learner of history, I feel compelled to defend it. There is a saying, Those who do not know history, are condemned to repeat it. To me this sounds just like a bromide, and this is not the defense I want to use. It seems a very weak defense as well. There are good examples of this being true through the course of history of course. I am sure if people look up the European wars through the ages, it can be seen tat the shortsightedness of the statesmen in looking at immediate gains rather than longer views forced countries into wars which were neither profitable nor worthy. If we can see Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and Hitler’s invasion nearly a century later, we can see that both failed due to the same reasons of fighting wars on two fronts, and of course the perennial General Winter of Russia. Both stopped with sighting distance of Moscow and turned back. Then we can see the colonization processes of Britain, France and now the US and how they all proceed in the exact same manner. It can be even said that they are following centuries old policies of the Romans itself, mainly divide and conquer. Anyway, leaving that defense, I wanted to see how it is useful everyday life itself. What it means to know history and relate it to yourself. I agree that you can go through life without ever knowing history, probably never bother about it all. However imagine how much more richer would the knowledge make you, being able to see things as they are now in their historical context. For example, Giacometti’s statues which to an observer would just seem like badly made cariacatures, but put in their context of being made between the two world wars depict the lonely, desperate times and what man yearned to get out of. An energetic being brought down by an impending sense of doom almost, lonely as it stands against the tide that seems to wipe over humanity. Or Wagner’s music, which on first hearing would seem very good, and it in fact is excellent. But put in the context of Wagner’s philosophies and teachings, would put an anti Semitic face to the music, deploring it of all music. The Nazis would later use this as their purifying music fit for their Master Aryan race. So playing this music for your Jewish friends might not be the best way to fit in with them. Also history teaches us a way of sifting through facts and myth to come up something real, as how people were all those times ago and seeing if what we live in is a better way now? Has the quality of our life been improving or simply a repetition of what our predecessors did? These might not be questions we ask ourselves in the course of daily events, but these are relevant questions if you want to be able to do something different, something what the world had not seen before. In the future, people might debate as to how we used to live, what were our outlooks on life, what were our beliefs, what code of standards did we use to live by. Anyway, history to me personally is like a story, a tale of how man has progressed through the ages. How we have grown from living in caves and dwellings and now have skyscrapers and high rise buildings built into the sky, as if to challenge the very gods themselves to dare stop us.

Anyway, I have been thinking of writing a story for some time now, and have found a good plot line I think… I will put up the starting on the next blog and see how people like it…Guys remember, I am no Isaac Asimov, so don’t expect too much either…

Strange Things

I guess this is the take off from the movie Wild Things, which I am sure every engineer has seen wide eyed. Anyway, in a lighter vein of things, I have modified the line Dilios says in 300 to suit any engineer to tell the truth:
“The old ones say that we engineers are descended from Newton himself. Taught never to look at women, never to sleep. Taught that cheating in the exam is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Engineers: the finest drunkards the world has ever known”
So moving on, with the song Cocaine stuck in my head.. “if you wanna get down, down on the ground; cocaine; she dont lie, she dont lie, she dont lie..cocaine” Actually this is the product of a person whose senses right now are numbed to the point, where coming up with something to put on the blog is becoming a pain itself. So over the weekend, read a book called War 2020, a world in which the US influence is decreased due to increased Japanese technology whose laser weapons have created a stalemate in the world. Basically Russia is down, and the Cold War continues with Japan and US on opposite ends. The US military is obliterated by the Japanese war machines, and the economy due to extensive outsourcing is controlled by outside forces. Now the Americans decide to support Russia in an unprecedented move to push back the rebel forces in Russia and thus regain some of the lost pride which they lost in wars to South Africa, Mexico, Los Angeles(internal gang rebellion) and Latin America in general who were being supplied by the Japanese. Also a disease without a cure ravages the western world while the eastern world somehow survives it unscathed. Now this all sounds very unbelievable to the point of being ludicrous, but hear the author out after the setting. It’s a pretty interesting book as to what happens and all. I personally think that this has to do with the outsourcing issue and the irrational fear that the Americans have about it. I mean the jobs that are being outsourced to other countries are the non essential jobs, that one could argue could have generated jobs in US but is being outsourced to India. But the fact remains that the corporations save a lot of money here, which they reinvest to have meaningful jobs back in the US. I mean, they pay software engineers in India the equivalent of what a guy flipping burgers in a McDonalds in US. Would people want to really do those jobs, or will the corporations be willing to pay them higher for those jobs? It could signal the end of the software bubble that India has been riding on for the last couple of years. Otherwise, it could lead to a monumental loss to the US market, as the jobs don’t get filled and the corporations claim the taxes… However, with both candidates set against outsourcing, we will have to wait and see the results of their policies.
Also the other thing was seeing John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is a disappointment coming from a senator of 30 years to select someone who does not seem qualified to hold the post of Vice President. I don’t have anything against her, but it just seems an amateurish way to capture the women vote and appease the Conservatives… It just seems like this might blow up in his face with Sarah Palin being inexperienced whereas McCain attacks Obama on being inexperienced.
Anyway, enough of the American elections, I am too tired to discuss that any further today. I instead wanted to talk about a section I belonged to while in IIT Roorkee. It was called Program Management or PM for short, part of Cultural society. Once upon a time in my first year, I remember going to an interview with a group of people. I thought generally at the time, to stay away from my room. I figured, either I should be in the room to study or outside enjoying. So I sat down, and two people took my interview. It was a weird interview. In two minutes they figured out I didn’t know hindi, could not draw, and wasn’t all too imaginative. I figured, that’s the end of it, lets have pizza at Nescafe and go back to the room, but for some reason they passed me through. Again, probably a clerical error of putting my paper on the wrong stack now that I think back to it. So I made it to this group at the time. It seemed like a fun group and the people seemed fun. The first meeting we had, I was christened Yella at any rate. One of the seniors found Rahul too hard to remember and thus shortened my last name to that.. Now four years later, that’s the name everyone knows me by. I honestly don’t think anyone knows me as Rahul. I even wrote an article in third year in a magazine claiming I am not Yella. Actually I tried to emulate Leonard Nimoy who plays Spock in Star Trek. He wrote a book I am not Spock as everyone associated him with that only..Later he wrote a book called I am Spock. Anyway after that article, people called me Yella even more… Back to the story, PM was a big part of my time in IITR. I worked and the people in the group were fun and energetic as hell. It involved basically organizing events for Cult Soc. Through this group, I had some very cool seniors and some very good juniors. I made some of my best friends there and four years was too short a time to spend with you guys there. I will always treasure the moments with you guys. Actually the trip down nostalgia lane was brought upon while discovering a greeting card given four years back by these guys on my birthday. I found it when I was packing my parents stuff so that they could move. I guess at the end of all things, all you are left with are memories of a time you left behind.

The Presidential Diaries

Since today morning, I have been reading a lot about the Democratic National Convention ’08, how both the Clinton’s have set the stage for the biggest speech in these times, the one of Obama and to not miss the historical significance, this speech commemorates the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Barrack Obama is probably one of the most scrutinized politicians in the recent times, more so than any other, for the fact that he is competing for the highest post and most probably the most powerful post in the world, the POTUS, and that he is an African American is what polarizes this election. Many questions lie unanswered, will he be able to unify the Democratic camp, what are his policies… Many of these questions will be answered in the next couple of days. With the policies that the Bush camp have followed in the last 8 years, they leave the world in a pretty bad shape, maybe even worse than the one at the end of Nixon’s disgraced presidency. With its foreign policy in tatters, and economy slowing to a grinding halt, despite the lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve, which is forcing the booming economies in turn to lower their own interest rates, causing overheating of those economies, in turn leading to isolationist policies, and thus decreasing Globalization. I must admit, I was an ardent Republican supporter, however in the last 8 years, the Republicans have floundered with the way they have dealt with the nation. The proposed tax cuts, the decreased spending in welfare, healthcare, Medicaid, social security… They have generally let the largest economy in the world become stagnant. Coming after 8 years of successive economic growth in which an unprecedented trade surplus was created, the US now runs a huge a trade deficit. America is no longer respected as a nation, even amongst its own allies, as the leaders who supported Bush being replaced one by one. Blair’s Labour Party now looks like it will fall signaling the death knell for Bush’s regime, if you could call it that. Despite all the checks and balances present in the Constitution, he was allowed to wage war despite the advice of all the advisors and the reports of WMD not being present in Iraq. With no clear agenda emerging from the Bush administration, one really begins to question the reasons for waging the war. To say that wealth generation for the oil firms was a reason would be a sole reason to place Bush amongst a select reviled few who include Hitler and Stalin. It is a pity that US does not accept the validity of the International Court at Hague, which tried Milosevic and Saddam Hussein. It would have been interesting to see the defense of the House of Bush. I have great respect for the democratic system of US, as it is the oldest democratic system and has survived more than 226 years with only 17 amendments being added since the original Constitution and the Bill of rights. It was a document that was both far seeing and practical. I mean 55 ordinary people, lawyers and such gathered together in a house in Virginia and produced the most important political document that has survived nearly unchanged since 225 years, an example of an ordinary group of people who got together to do something very extraordinary. However, enough of the history lesson, back to the main point. Barrack Obama has a unique chance in history to change all the perceptions about US. He might be what US needs at this time, not John McCain with another four years of Republican rule. The Ultra Conservatives have really ruled with an iron fist, and it might be time for some velvet gloves. With Hillary and Bill Clinton setting the stage, its time for Obama the politician and the man who is ‘one of us’ to step up and become the President of the United States.
Anyway, enough of that political discourse.. I have read Chasm city by Alastair Reynolds in the last two days, and what I have read, I have liked. It’s a fun book filled with intrigue and guile and it’s a quick read as well. This is my first book of Alastair Reynolds, and I think I will go on to read more of his books.
Also in this blog I would like to mention my cross country wingman Jassi, whose advice to get a girl I found very valuable. His advice is shed all inhibition, go for the girl that you find unapproachable. After that he says, going to any other girl should be easier..Go figure, if he wants me to be a bachelor all my life or something… But to be fair, his advice is better than the other wingman, Kaviraaj… His advice of sending a message to propose, since I was out of balance, was invaluable… That girl called me up and then laughed at the idiot who would send a message… However, that group of guys I was with in Roorkee, really made life there much easier, as we were able to share all the good times and the bad times together. Thank you guys and I miss you as well!

Randomness!(Rather Craziness!)

Breaking Dawn! Never read this book or read at your own mental peril. Remarkable story of how I came to that conclusion. So, busily browsing on amazon.com, I saw that this book was on top of the New York Times Bestseller list. So I went ahead and bought the book in the nearby store thinking, this cant be so bad. Anyway, 900 pages later I found the truth that yes, most people have no idea of what they read. I also found out that this was the fourth book in some series. The book is basically how a human marries a vampire who is at war with the werewolves at the time. The vampires and werewolves have signed a treaty to not produce any more offspring and they adhered to that for years together. However, the human and vampire together have a werewolf baby. Actually the explanation is pretty scientific as well. Apparently vampires have 25 sets of chromosomes and werewolves have 24 sets of chromosomes. Since humans have only 23 sets, apparently the law of averages works in inter species pregnancy. So the book goes on and on for 900 pages. The least I can say about this book was that the Chinese method of torture seems a better option than this book.
Anyway, for the last one year I have been reading Star Trek series. Lot of novels written by different authors. Mainly I have been reading The Next Generation novels with Capt. Picard and Riker. The character of Picard comes across as very interesting in this series. The thinker, philosopher, historian, captain.. Really comes across as the ultimate man, the one who says the buck stops here. He is kind of a throwback to the ancient Greco-Roman days, the statues which show men as immaculate. Anyway, I would recommend these for the Sci-Fi fans. Trekkies for life.
Anyway, beyond the literary reviews, with the Olympics getting over and all, it got me thinking that even the world’s largest stage was presented to the world leaders, not a single leader of a nation used it to protest against China’s humanitarian policies. I think I used one of my earlier blogs to complain about the draconian laws of China like the One child policy, the bullet charged to the family.(one child policy- each family can have only child and any other children being born will be put to death before they crown). (Bullet charged to family- There is a famous photo of a guy standing in front of a tank at Tiananmen Square where students were protesting against Deng Xiaoping’s policies. They arrested the guy and sentenced him to death. They charged the family for the bullet they used to kill the guy) Tiananmen Square was an incident that recently occurred and the leaders then are still part of the Chinese Politburo today. The stage setting by the Chinese seemed like a repeat of the Berlin Olympics of 1936. Only this time, the entire world was watching live on TV and not a single protest was raised. I would still say congrats to the Chinese athletes for challenging American supremacy at the games. The games are competitions at the highest level challenging both body and mind, and those who persevered won. It was a magical Olympics, with Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, USA’s Redeem Team. Lot of winners here, and I hope that London will see even better athletes who better these records.
I was watching the tv show How I met your mother the other day and in that Ted mentions his favorite go to bad time movie is Field of Dreams. That brought back old memories of where I had first seen this movie. It was in a math class, that my teacher out of her own interest had shown us the movie. At the time I dismissed it as a movie with ghosts and a guy chasing after them. I think I realized the full impact of the movie years later when I watched it again after getting through JEE. I realized that the ghosts he was chasing were members of the Chicago White Sox, who were involved in the Chicago Black Sox scandal for betting on the games and accused of throwing the World Series. These were some of the most famous players at the time and it caused a huge stench in the sport at the time. It shows that the souls of these players had not yet rested and were yet to be appeased. Very moving story, as how Kevin Costner, meets his own father who was part of the team, and meets his own father’s ghost. Kind of gives a Hamlet feel to the entire story.
Also, was just in a chat right now, thinking, does economics and its implications have anything to do with the election results? I mean, with BJP probably heading one of the largest expansion phases of Indian economics, they still lost out with their India Shining Campaign. With Bill Clinton leading the largest and longest economic growth in US, the Democrats lost to the Republicans bringing George Bush to power...(Now that is an entirely different story as well.. Basically with Florida recount, he won by 537 votes and 10,000 votes not being recounted on order of the Supreme Court, whom the Republicans have nominated 8 of them.) For more on Bush, wait for my review of The Fall of the House of Bush. Now the Labor government in England seems destined to fall.

Anyway, this duke is feeling really sleepy and I will go off to drink coffee and biscuits...So have fun, stay safe and enjoy...

Echo of the Sound of Silence

Hola mis amigos! Que tal? Ok, for those who are spanish illiterate it means Hi my friends, whats up? Anyway, this title being inspired from the Simon and Garfunkel's song Sound of Silence. Really struck with me with this line.."and the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made..and the sign flashed out its warning..".."people listening but not hearing..".. I wondered what are they referring to when they say the "neon god". Are they ones that we see on TV, the glitterati and social elite? Are they the ones that we see perform superhuman feats? I was wondering about who do we consider as heroes nowadays? Are the days when we considered scientists and all heroes gone? ( I remember saying as a kid I wanted to be Einstein and all, never mind that it never happened) Especially in India where there is a lack of the hero ethos. Sure we have Sachin Tendulkar(who was my hero when I was a kid), Abdul Kalam etc. but most of the heroes we have nowadays are the ones created by media for one defining moment only to be brushed off until the next hero comes along. I mean if you look at the careers that were lifted by the media to heights reserved only for the greatest and the best, (ex. Sania Mirza, Narain Karthikeyan) only to crash and burn in the outset of their careers. These could have been heroes for a generation had they been allowed to grow properly. With the pressure of a billion people watching them, the fact that they were able to compete itself is a great achievement. I mean do we as a country truly have a "Hero" we can look upto? I would venture to say that yes, we do. Call me old fashioned or cliched, but Mahatma Gandhi was one such person. His ideas and ideals were ones that truly lifted our country and they still continue to be relevant to this day and age. Anyway, so are these the neon gods that we made?
Also, with the background of the Olympics, I wanted to express my joy in the Indian athletes that won medals abroad, and I sincerely hope this is a point which will spawn a generation of athletes to come and compete at the highest levels. Something out of the lines of Kryptonite by 3 doors down.."If I go crazy then will you still Call me Superman If I'm alive and well will you be There holding my hand I'll keep you by my side with my Superhuman might" I just hope that these people wont be forgotten quickly by our short attention span society these days.
Anyway, more on these things later.. Recently i read a book by Albert Speer, the Reichminister for Armaments in Nazi Germany, Inside the Third Reich. Actually this is what got me thinking about the Sound of Silence. How silence from the crowd propelled mad men to take over the reins of a state, convert a country that produced Beethoven and Bach to creating instruments of genocide. This is what got me thinking about who do we look upto, whom do we see as our saviours in this modern day and age. In the 30's the German people turned to Hitler for that. I was trying to understand, how did they as a people were lured by the wiles of a mad man. Albert Speer explains how he was perfectly seduced to the point where he cared neither about his life nor limb when he went to visit Hitler a last time in his bunker just to tell him that yes, he disregarded his orders and was waiting for the punishment. Not of friendship, and not out of loyalty but rather hypnotism was his explanation for it. For that he spent 20 years in Spandau(a prison for the Nuremberg trial prisoners). At Nuremberg where the German leaders were tried for crimes against humanity, the first ever such trial held, these people were found guilty on all charges and the higher leaders being hanged whereas the second level leaders receiving long terms in prison. Again business sense got the better of the Allied forces here as well. They released the business leaders quite quickly as Krupp, Thyssen etc were released barely three years into their prison terms. These were the people whose finances made the German war machine possible. I.G. Farben whose factories churned out Zyklon B, the terror gas of the prisoner camps used to exterminate the Jews, Krupp's factories which manufactured the incinerators, Thyssen whose shrewd finances helped the Reich amass a huge war chest in direct contravention with the Treaty of Versailles.. All absolved of their crimes against humanity.. They say trade brings two countries closer as they exchange their culture with each other..but two thoughts that could change that..1) In 1939, France was Germany's largest trading partner 2) In 1941, USSR was Germany's largest trading partner..They were such good partners that even after a month after invading USSR, the grain trains were still running west from the Ural mountains towards Germany.
Anyway, enough history lessons for now.. Off to lunch, bbye!