The age factor!

Most of the atoms which make up both our bodies were made in supernova explosions around ten billion years ago. During those years they’ve floated about the cosmos, provided fuel for many generations of stars, congealed under the force of gravity into our planet, flowed through mosquitoes, dinosaurs, whales, and everything else. Matter has always been changing forms and we’re nature’s latest creation. We’re very old yet our awareness of this world is what is constantly being born anew. The body’s like a sort of lense through which our consciousness peeks through to experience the world. But it’s just a temporary stage. This human experience is short and fleeting. That isn’t to minimize the importance of our lives, it’s just to say that we’re a part of something a lot bigger. A flow. A development. The world is ever-changing and we’re all a part of that. If you realize this, I don’t think you’ll so bad about your age. You’ll realize we’re all VERY old, billions of years old, connected to a very large process for which no force imaginable could ever separate you.

I find the ultimate contentment and peace in that thought. I’ve studied cosmology and how stars form. I’ve looked into the big bang, and Einstein’s theory of relativity. I’ve cranked equations modeling gravitation. I’ve learned how our planet formed, how the rocks flow, how and why the winds blow, why the rains pour, and why the seasons change. I’ve studied biology and pondered the inner workings of cells, how they duplicate, generate energy, and evolve into larger organisms. I’ve charted the evolution of humans from early simple swimming creatures in the ocean to us today. I’ve looked into history and how humans have formed the first civilizations. What led to our success? Where have we failed?

Take some time and just fly down that time-line, billions and billions and billions of years. It just goes on and on and on and on. Watch the big bang. Watch the space expand, the radiation cool, and let the first atoms of Hydrogen, Helium, and bits of Lithium form. Watch gravity pull them into the first stars, shining bright and beautiful and then exploding in giant bursts of radiance. THe radiance is so powerful that new denser atoms are formed. The entire periodic table of elements explodes off into space. You’re being born. Nature’s at work making you! Now watch our sun form from a giant gas cloud. It’s twirling and spinning, faster, and faster, and faster, clumping into a smaller and smaller ball, and then BOOM. It lights up! Watch little chunks of rock and debris form into larger and larger clumps leading to the planets. Think of the oceans and lightning crashing down from the red sky and the first atoms coming together from the organic materials on the shoreline. They’re replicating, replicating, replicating. They start forming into groups, then larger groups, then larger groups. Life is evolving! Those organisms start to combine and form ecosystems. Trees, plants, and mushrooms. Watch them grow. Millions and millions and millions of years. How many generations of life have gone by, using the same materials on the Earth’s surface? Millions of generations. Our atoms have been every sort of tree, bug, and reptile. Now watch the first humans evolve in Africa. Watch them migrate out into Europe. Watch them build the pyramids and those fantastic temples. Watch them ponder the universe and their origins. Follow them and their search, all the way to today. Now look at yourself in the mirror. What are you? It’s taken a lot longer than hundred years to make you and you’ll be around long after you’re dead!

Love is a beautiful thing. We look into the dark pupil of one another’s eyes, unconsciously recognizing that vast depth of space where the outer world becomes the inner world. That circular aperture extends back into its own world, infinite in all directions. Such a small hole through which to look through, but a person’s eyes say so much. Consciousness is pretty mysterious. That man or woman you love. Who or what is he/she? I’m baffled by the idea that other people see me when I’m looking into their eyes.

I’ve never found love myself. Sometimes I don’t think I can quite wrap my head around it. It’s both wonderful and terrifying at the same time. Emotions are the most complicated aspect of human cognition. They include a deep interplay and flow between every aspect of the brain. The brain is the most sophisticated thing we know of in the universe, and emotions are its most complex form of thought. That makes love and our other emotions the most complicated processes known in the universe. My journey hasn’t gone very far past where I’ve taken you so far. Our timeline ends here. I wonder if love is really something that’s understood? Thought about?

The world has a strange way of leading you where you need to go, if you only follow the cues. You’ll find your way. It’s not over. It’s never over.

Life is Beautiful

 Yes, the title is what you think it is! The movie with same title was inspiration to this. I want to start of this article with a conversation taken from the book "We the Living" -Ayn Rand.

"Well, if I asked people whether they believed in life, they'd never understand what I meant. It's a bad question. It can mean so much that it really means nothing. So I ask them if they believe in God. And if they do-then, I know they don't believe in life."

"Why?"(Andrei)

"Because, you see, God - whatever anyone chooses to call God - is one's highest conception of the highest possibility. And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life. It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your own. To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but demand it."

I strongly agree with this argument and one should follow it to be a lively man in this world. But, there are certain instances, when things become difficult. For example, Silvester Stallone never believed in god. He believed in life and he got what he wanted out of life. But, when his daughter fell ill he tried everything in his hands to keep her alive. When he came to know that there is no use trying except praying, he had nothing to do but pray. Suddenly, he believed in god and prayed for his daughter's life. There are certain desperate situations which test a man  and his emotional break point(it doesn't mean that he has to cry). I see it in a different way. I may even go to a temple just to find  out what it is like visiting a temple. I don't believe in any particular form. I don't keep any pictures of god. I don't see any reason why all gods are anthropomorphized. But, if at all I face any desperate situation I turn towards a force, a form less force which gives me solace, a force which is full of life. A supernatural force, which resides in me. There are certain situations which make you more broader and discover certain weaknesses. Like when you didn't do well in a particular exam or if you were not able to get into a sports team you so dreamed of or if you got rejected by a girl etc In those situations people will say a lot around you. They don't know what exactly it is like being you, how hard you tried, how you were unable to concentrate on studies as you are interested in something else or if your health condition was bad. Nothing matters to them, they just come and tweet in front of you randomly sometimes even a single word might have a long term effect on you. So we should try to avoid all such negative people in this world and move towards positive people who are full of life and make sure not to do the same to others like if you get rejected by a girl, best thing is to put yourself in her shoes and see things her way though it is tough at times at least little bit of understanding is enough. You might say she is not worth it and she doesn't have proper reasoning skills, but  why would you have even liked her in the first place. Best thing is to look at fear in its face and wish her good and remain as friends if the girl is broad enough to be so. When it comes to this part, I can't resist writing more on it. I mean what is love? I see it as selfishness of two people. If I find some girl attractive not because she is beautiful but because of her cheerful nature or some other characteristic in her. It is because I have developed a prejudice that I will be happy being with her, but I am not sure whether it will be the same, once we start staying together. I might even sacrifice many things for her like getting ready to even go to a temple because I am expecting something from her unconsciously. If you make her feel happy and if you make her feel that she is secure when she is with you for those some days, when you are trying to impress her, she is all yours. In this relationship, she has her own selfishness for being with you. Will a girl be ready to go out with Stephen Hawking in his present position if he has no money? It is because she is not getting what she wanted in her life! To make us feel better like in any other instance we have a better name called love! But, don't get me wrong I am not against love, I am giving you the reason why people fall in love.  Yes, it is selfishness but still it is beautiful to fall in it. I really doubt  whether love , let us say if it is little bit different from selfishness, exists without selfishness. Does selfless love really exist? That is what Ayn Rand says when an interviewer asks her why she married a particular man!I like her frankness, which most of the girls and boys are even afraid of thinking. I like the intensity in her characters, I wonder whether such people really exist. I don't want to interact with them or be friends with them but just want to sit in a corner and watch them. I just loved reading about Hoard Roark, the ideal man full of life. I don't remember much about other characters. However hard we try to be like him it gets more harder. I believe inherently we have our own characters even if you were able to empathize with such ideal characters (because of certain similarities) and imitate him it will not last long! So I have decided to just enjoy reading and be the way I want to be and lead the life my way and in a beautiful way!

The theory

Loved this argument by a well known blogger:

 I have to say that this society is so male oppressive. It is so biased against the men of the species that somebody ought to do something about it. A woman can stay at home, not work and she is called 'adjusting' and sacrificing. If a man wants to stay at home, he is irresponsible, effeminate, 'dhanda soru', and in general - a madman. Why the discrimination, I ask? Since the beginning of time, men have been sent to gather food, build tribes, conquer tribes, fight wars, build machines, create philosophy, spread religion, kill animals, and now what - go to work. While women have been sitting at home cooking food and having sex. Food and sex - the dream combination that every man wants has been secretly cordoned off by the evil woman. and whats more, the suffragist movement make men feel guilty for letting them have it so easy. They claim that they actually want to do the work and earn food and sex. I'd like them to start all over from the beginning with the invention of fire and wheel and then work their way down to corporate offices. Now that 'work' is being done in A/C rooms - they suddenly want to be a part of it. If a wild boar had to be caught in the dark forest for dinner to be cooked, its time for Asterix and Obelix to do the work. You won't find Mrs Impedimenta or Mrs Geriatrix complaining about the glass ceilings to Chief Vitalstatistix. Can you imagine their ultimate triumph? They've made work look like something special and forced men to dominate it and later made men feel guilty for dominating it. Can there be more injustice? I demand freedom for the stay-at-home guy. Men should be able to stay at home and not be made to feel bad about it. Let this happen and then women can demand equality.

http://hawkeyeview.blogspot.in/2007/09/dear-office-going-people.html

A Hero of Our Times

I wasa reading a book " A Hero of Our Times". I couldn't help posting this particular para from that book. Felt wonderful reading this.
All was calm in heaven and on earth, calm as


within the heart of a man at the moment of

morning prayer; only at intervals a cool wind

rushed in from the east, lifting the horses' manes

which were covered with hoar-frost. We started

off. The five lean jades dragged our wagons

with difficulty along the tortuous road up Mount

Get. We ourselves walked behind, placing stones

under the wheels whenever the horses were spent.

The road seemed to lead into the sky, for, so far

as the eye could discern, it still mounted up and

up, until finally it was lost in the cloud which,

since early evening, had been resting on the summit

of Mount Get, like a kite awaiting its prey.

The snow crunched under our feet. The atmosphere

grew so rarefied that to breathe was painful;

ever and anon the blood rushed to my head,

but withal a certain rapturous sensation was

diffused throughout my veins and I felt a species

of delight at being so high up above the world.

A childish feeling, I admit, but, when we retire

from the conventions of society and draw close

to nature, we involuntarily become as children:

each attribute acquired by experience falls away

from the soul, which becomes anew such as it was

once and will surely be again. He whose lot it

has been, as mine has been, to wander over the

desolate mountains, long, long to observe their

fantastic shapes, greedily to gulp down the lifegiving

air diffused through their ravines -- he, of

course, will understand my desire to communicate,

to narrate, to sketch those magic pictures.