Another Day in Paradise

It was a summer evening. I had finished playing cricket with my companions. That day we played in children’s park. I bid adieu to ‘the dwarf’, which was a bushy mango tree which never grew tall, on my way back home. May be it preferred to maintain status quo, because of deep compassion towards the young ones who used to play on it. Sky was clear, with light indigo shade blending with sky blue, indicating sun was bidding farewell to that day, after giving as much light as it can for the nature to blossom. There was a small pool of water near the overhead tank. Two myna’s were busy taking bath, and, it looked as if it was a rendezvous for them.
Bunch of white cranes were flying back to their resting place as part of their daily routine. They spent their day time near the banks of Periyar and adjoining paddy fields. Tall grass which grew in the park had turned brownish and dry, because it was latter half of summer. They swayed as the mild cool breeze which filtered through the giant mango and gulmohar trees blew across the park. I lazily walked towards my house. I could hear the melodious chirp of a cuckoo, which perched on one of those giant mango trees right across the street. I stepped out of the park onto the street. Street had turned into a carpet of flowers which fell from the canopy of gulmohar (vagaa) trees. I reached the arched gate of my house and observed that our white Pomeranian dog was amidst an evening nap, lying peacefully on the tranquil courtyard of the bungalow. As soon as, I opened the gate he instantaneously stood erect and darted an arrogant gaze towards the gate. When he comprehended that it was me, he reverted back to his resting position. I advanced towards my house by walking along the road within the compound which curved towards the car porch. Road was along the side of a lush green lawn, which was surrounded by a variety of flora. There were mosantha which had blood red flowers, shoe flower plants with red, yellow and orange flowers, the jack fruit tree, and so on. The three tall drooping ashoka trees stood majestically, revealing its humility by giving way to the wind.
My nose could filter out ordour of eucalyptus which the wind carried from the leaves of the eucalyptus tree which was one of it’s kind in the near vicinity. As I was taking a turn along the curve, a squirrel scurried across the road. He was not convinced of my friendly gestures, and, did not venture to my proximity. As I took the turn towards the car porch there were many gorgeous looking roses welcoming me home. It was delightful to watch them. My mother was plucking the dry leaves on them, and, she was doing it meticulously. As she took care of them with her tender hands, her endearment towards them was lucidly portrayed.
As I started climbing up the stairs in from of the bungalow, somebody called me. I opened my eyes and realized, I was deeply immersed in a dream. I dreamt about the bungalow and its surrondings, where I was extremely fortunate to celebrate my childhood. It was located in Eloor village near Cochin. I will cherish those memories for ever. Era in my life when every day was ‘Another day in paradise’

Beauty Of Divergence

This is an interesting thought which has enlightened my inner consciousness. In this age where I see people getting more inclined to forge themselves into stereotyped views about life and way to live, I personally feel sheer absence of tolerance. People getting offended about divergence in perspectives towards life and nature. They miss out on the fundamental axiom of life, which is based on evolution, and, divergence is an inherent dimension of evolution. Beauty of divergence is that it still maintains a delicate balance. Nature has very interesting and complex mechanisms to achieve equilibrium when there is a mutation in the ecosystem because of external and internal factors. There are a lot of disparities in physical and intellectual capabilities, in life style both imbibed and inherent and habitats that they thrive in, between millions of species in this planet. Those disparities have added beauty, bringing variety and different possibilities for life to survive, evolve and flourish.
But unfortunately, our species ‘homo sapiens’ do not seem to comprehend the aspect of divergence, which is one of the fundamental pillars, on which the nature, which we are part of, has evolved. We are oblivious to the ‘beauty of divergence’. We are obsessed about convergence of thought processes, perspectives regarding life and philosophies which defines the rules for the same. But what does this obsession lead to. Nothing but, constraining creativity due to extreme dogmatism, leading to complete absence of evolution of philosophies which has been driving force towards enriching collective wisdom of our species. Dogmatism is acme of attachment. All misery and enormity of conflicts which exists among humans is because of attachment to materialistic pursuits and stereotyped views regarding life.
When ever I tried to visualize nature, it appeared to me as a web, where the diverging strands can be compared to paths of evolution and circular strands to paths of relationships and dependencies. It is a very delicate and intricate network. We humans are just a node where the path of evolution of apes intersect the current outer most circular strand which gives a snapshot of the current ecosystem. If we consider the evolution of human civilizations, that also can be considered as a web, similar to the web of nature which I have indicated above.
Humans have a myopic view of this planet and cosmos. We are so ignorant about the existence of this closely knit artwork of nature, the ‘web of nature’. We tend to believe that everything is centered around our species, which is a irrational belief, and shows a complete depletion of common sense!! Same magnitude of ignorance is evident, when I see, squabbles and debates centered around, which philosophy, on which social and intellectual dynamics of a civilization revolves around, is correct and appropriate to follow. Each and every living entity is like are ray of light. Colour of a ray depends on elements which it is composed of and the intensity of each of its elements. If you look at a living entity, it’s definition of life, depends on it’s intellectual, physical and spiritual quotient. I am not sure how many of us appreciate this fact.
One truth that I have realized is that nothing is absolute in this cosmos. Every thing is relative. Definition of anything is relative and is based on defined frame of reference. I see some people proud about something disregarding the fact that we are all bound by relative assessments and when we thing we are good it is not necessarily good in a different frame of reference.
In spite of this divergence in the web of nature, there is an implicit oneness. No species can survive in isolation. Each has to play it’s role in this act of nature governed by the rules of nature. If this oneness is discovered by all, then all the conflicts will cease to exist. For discovering this ‘oneness’ the focal point of life has to change from self and accept self as part of the whole. This can only be achieved by attaining a certain level of detachment from material world. For last few centuries humans have grossly overlooked this implicit thread of oneness which has to resonate with the rhythm of life.
Life is a journey fuelled by knowledge. Nature is the tutor and the university. The divergence in the web of nature unfolds in front of us hiding all the complexities and exhibiting only the simplicity. Can we imbibe this simplicity? I myself have forgotten in this uni focused rat race of urban life, when I get time to observe nature, which I often used to do in my childhood days. Many of the innovations that we have in this century probably is not in favor of oneness of nature. That is leading to conflicts within our species and also across species.
As the cosmos is, everything, is in a constant state of flux. Nothing is permanent. Always in a transient state. But how many of us realize this. Many of us live in a false pretense of permanence which is not real!! We are all bound by the cosmic cycle. What does cosmic cycle mean? It is a cycle where there is no beginning nor end. The diverging paths of evolution which leads to expansion of cosmic web, cannot sustain the expansion along the time dimension and will implode back into the state where the cosmic web originated. Cycle goes on!! This is also true with the ‘web of nature’. But this cycle applies to the physical world. Body is only a medium through which the inner consciousness interacts with the material world. Journey of the inner consciousness continues. Is it cyclic? May be, May be not!!
We discussed about the divergence in the web of nature. But what gives the order to this expanding web. What gives it stability and the equilibrium and controls the entropy as it expands? The order and stability is there because of the inherent convergence of the laws of nature which govern the diverging paths of evolution. But what about the web of civilizations. Why there is so much of conflicts and instability in it? Does it have a convergence in laws governing it in terms of values and ethics. Until this is in place conflicts are inevitable. I dream of this world and hope will be a reality soon!!

Music and Mathematics

I love music and am very passinate about Hindustani music. Mathematics is part of music. But it is not just that. Because music is mix of various things. It has the pattern of notes which signifies a raag and brings in a certain mood. This was evolved out of last hundreds of years out of nature (which includes our species). If you look at taal cycles in music it is of course mathematical. Aspects of octaves and harmonics is mathematics. But there is a big aspect of what is called the 'bhaav' in the rendition. Even when you have a set of notes in a pattern, the combinations, emphasis on various notes and how that changes in various octaves influences the mood. This cannot be mathematically framed because this happens out of the creativity and feel of the mood that the artist has.
When I started learning music I had a thought that music is various permutation and combinations of the 7 notes rendered in a specific taal cycle in various octaves. But I discovered that it is much more than that. One day I was in thenmusic class. I was learning early morning raag "Bhibhas". I had started learning this raag 3 weeks back and it was 4 th class. My guruji Shri. Keerthi Kumar Bhaswashiji asked me to sing alaap. Alaap is the first phase in a raag rendition when the raag is introduced to audience and the mood is created. I had practiced alaap and started singing. After 5 minutes my guruji asked me to stop and with a mild smile he told me that "You are technically right but there is no bhaav. When you sing this raag you should feel the rising sun because raag has essence of nature" Then he started signing and I could feel the 'rising sun'. That experience made me think. It is an emotion which cannot be mathematically modelled. It is not a tangible material but an intangible experience.

Look at the para below. This I took from http://www.itcsra.org/ You can go thru this site for more information on Hindustani raags.

It is an ocean there and it is some thing like computer science. But it has some dimensions which science does not have. That is the spiritual and emotional dimension.
"Two ragas may have identical notes and yet be very different ragas; for example, two ragas mentioned earlier, Shree and Puriya Dhanashri, have exactly the same notes, but are unmistakably different in structure and temperament. The first can be identified by its continual exploration of the relationship of the note Re to the note Paa; while the repetition of the phrase Ma Re Ga Re Ma Ga, a phrase that would be inadmissible in the first raga, is an enduring feature of the latter. Certain arrangements of notes, then, are opposite to particular ragas and taboo to all others. A simple and abstract knowledge, thus of the notes of a raga or the thaat on which it is based, is hardly enough to ensure a true familiarity or engagement with the raga, although it may serve as a convenient starting point.
Thaat familiarity can only come from a constant exposure to, and critical engagement, with raga's exposition."