Busy week ahead

I have not been writing on this blog because I have a huge exam coming up. I jus hope I clear it off and keep up my 4.0 in school. I doubt if that will happen as I have always found that something is always jinxed when I try to get something done. Well we will see how things turn out. Today happens to be a holiday in our school. It is called "All Campus Day" - seems like the school wanted to give the students another reason to drink and party. Well it is a fun day and with the sun out and blazing away it is a fine day to go out and partee' and watch women dressed in scraps which could pose off as a poor excuse for a dress. Well I am not complaining hehe...

Am I a convoluted personality or is this normal?

Everyday seems intriguing and I learn new things about my own persona that tends to baffle me. Today, after a gurelling day at work I returned home. I was in a cheerful mood and started watching an old MGR movie. After a couple of hours I suddenly felt lonely. A sense of turbidity started to creep into my mind. I paced up and down the hallway trying to control this annoying turbulence that was unsetlling me. My friends noticed the change in my mood but my tendency to indulge in acridity when I have these mood swings forced them to stay away. After an hour of grimacing at my need to vent out this suddenly built up hostility, I started writing this blog. As I look back at the happenings this evening I see no instance where any one said anything offensive to me yet my mind took offence to something. This brings up the question,

"Am I a convoluted person whose moods find a way of meandering between the over-endearing to the over-agressive?"
OR

"Did someone actually do something that caused my mood to inadvertently change from happy to sad?"

When my thoughts were off-synch was I actually sad or was I angry or .....?

I hope to find some definite answers to these questions that keep flooding my mind. Maybe someday I would sit with my best friend who also happens to be my roomate and ask him if he could give me his insights on inroads into my so very convoluted mind.

A mathematical explanation to the difference between bad and good music

I have always wondered why me trying to play the mirdangam(Indian drums) with my friend who was playing the bongos never added up to good music. When I thought about how I could make our duo presentable two things that came to mind were the rythm and beats. I noticed that if both me and he play in the same rythm it drags and well if we change up the rythm and he plays slow and I play fast then our duo sounds good. But well this would require a sense of synchronization otherwise the music would not be pleasant to hear. I realised this has to do with the patterns formed by the two frequencies generated by my mirdangam and his bongos. Unless our sounds show a pattern it will not be pleasing to the ears. The human brain is a cognitive system which responds to patterns and most human knowledge other than the basic animal instincts is acquired. This is also why some people like a certain kind of music and others like a different kind. Each person's brain acquires a sense of pattern that the ear relishes as consonant and another that the ear despises as dissonant.

Is this true and if so is this also the reason why some colours are pleasing to our eyes and others are jarring? One of the erudites reading this could please shed more light on this.

An Intresting day in Research

The day started off with a boring class in electromagnetic theory. We were studying relativistic electromagnetics and Dr Price's scorn for engineers was seen by the change in his tone everytime he set eyes on me. Then after getting out of class which seemed to last forever, I started working on my research work. Today I had decided to review some of the papers in literature on my research topic. My advisor came into my lab in an unforgiving mood and I happened to be the only one in the office. I had taught one of his classes in his absence and he wanted to discuss what topics I had covered. When I was explaining the topics and how I taught them he seemed to not like my teaching style and so started on with a lecture on how I did not understand the subject I was teaching. It annoyed me and however hard I tried to control my anger and frustration my eyes gave away my emotions. After this heated exchange I had a meeting with him again in the evening where he was happy with my literature survey. I was confused at what pleasure my advisor gets at making me feel low.

A day filled with some excellent scenes from sports

Today I saw one of the most spirited and determined efforts in badminton - Taufik hidayat's dream run and the final game against Shon Seung-Mo of Korea. His determination to win gold is seen in every smash and brillaintly disguised drops that he plays through out the final. The massive power of his in-the-air smash and the finnesse of his drops simply make you think if he was asked to play this game again would he be able to do it. His performance could be compared to the brilliant Ardy Wiranata and the amazing Allan Budi Kusuma and the game they played in the '92 olympic final. Everytime I see displays such as these of sheer will propelling a person to perform at his very best I am compelled to stand in awe of the power of the human spirit.

Another brilliant game I saw where one of my hereos who actually lost his game - Jan Ove Waldner, the Mozart of table tennis. In Athens the table tennis genius was again the spectators- favourite. Jan-Ove impressed with his unique touch. His play was full of invention. His well known variations of service, service returns, and topspin with both backhand and forehand, won him many points. Decisive 4:1 victories against the Chinese tournament favourite Ma Lin and the German star Timo Boll were the result. No one expected such a great performance after a soul destroying year of injury. Finally Waldner fell to RYU Seung Min, whose speed was too much for the 39 year old.

Are there double standards in Indian social rules

Well coming from a traditional and ultra conservative Brahmin society I have found that every custom and tradition in India has double standards and at some stage or point are abused by the same people who preach and live it. The "rules" as they are called are always twisted at will like in a game and also like in any game there are winners and losers. I write this standing in the loser’s cauldron with my feet burnt by those so called rules. I don’t know how many out there actually care to write about them and condemn them but I sure would like to know others who share the ill luck of being toppled down and their reputation marred by "social rules" rather than their own actions. The very nature of these "rules", like no physical intimacy before marriage, women should dress and behave a certain way etc. seem to be very hypocritical and the outlook very narrow.
Why are these rules made and what do they mean for the people following and living them? Do these rules put the people under them a cut above the rest who don’t or are they mere superficial tools used at will by people powerful enough to wield them? I hope someone smarter or wiser than me can answer these questions because I sure would like to know why we live in a self installed fortress with these social laws that bind us to beliefs that most of us despise inward but are too scarred to accept or question in open light.

Me and My great sister Aparna 

My First post

Well I am excited that I created this blog. I have been wanting to fo this for a long time now and I see how people reap the benefits of shring one another's comments and ideas. Hopefully this blog will help lead to new friendships.