Pay it forward

It is a season of giving and sharing and suitably i happened to see this movie on television called 'Pay it forward'. The movie is relatively old with Kevin Spacey brilliant as always, Helen Hunt in a very unusual role and the phenomenal Haley Joel Osment. It is based on a book and the theme was later followed by formation of a philanthropist movement called 'Pay it forward foundation'.

The theme of the movie is a school assignment given by his teacher (Kevin Spacey) to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Osment (son of Helen Hunt) takes it up very seriously and brings a homeless man home. He calls his plan "pay it forward", which can be described as a charitable pyramid scheme, based on good deeds. "Paying it forward" means the recipient of a favor does a favor for a third party rather than paying the favor back. So he does three good deeds and each good deed translates into 3 more favours by the recipients and so on to make it a continuous chain reaction.

A movie that is a little to melodramatic and loud to my liking but nevertheless keeps you thinking and that is what i guess it intended to achieve. Although not completely original, I think the movie is a perfect food for thought especially during this season when everybody is in a slightly somber state of mind...worth a watch i would say. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

The Lost Dan Brown

I have read all of Dan Brown books - and this one is the worse. To begin with the title sucks...what is he really looking for - a symbol, a pyramid, a legend, a masonic secret ? Professor Langdon is sceptical and so are Mr Dan Brown's readers. Goes to show that Mr. Brown is lost and he just drags us with him.

I am beginning to feel that after the success of The Da Vinci Code - this book is his deliberate and forced attempt to put America on the mystery hunt list. In fact India would have been a more suited location to find ancient mysteries. He induces fascination where it does not exist. His fast pace/page turning formula leaves you disappointed chapter after chapter and towards the end you feel both frustrated and cheated.

The only interesting aspect in the whole book is "Noetic Science" - i could not help launching a research to understand more of it. Noetics as i understand is essentially trying to find some scientific explanations (through meta physics and such) in the intangible beliefs of soul, intuition or the inner consciousness.

IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) was co-founded by Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut who was part of the Apollo 14 mission. During his journey Mitchell had an epiphany while looking down on the earth that existence of life on earth was not just an accident based on random processes...

Well...the scriptures in India, China or Egypt have a lot to say on this subject - some of the ancient revelations are perhaps forgotten or have been branded as superstitions due to the lack of understanding of modern sciences.

IONS might be able to fill that gap and provide us with some substantial research that confirms that what we read in scriptures is not "bull" and maybe we all have within us super human capabilities which only needs to be unleashed. And then the ancient gods will hold no fascination if we would be able to part seas, travel in time or heal the sufferings in this world.

Marrying the intangible mysteries to logical sciences maybe worthwhile - but this is a deep subject and Browns attempt to capture it in a few hundred pages is a bit ambitious i think.

People Watch

This is a hobby perhaps of the idle and the inert. But it is a social science and extremely stimulating if you know what i am talking about.

Whenever i travel i simply love to sit at an outdoor cafe in a crowded street or at the airport as i am waiting for the flight and watch people go by (that is when my daughter is not trying to probe my attention).

You can gather many insights by simply observing people - their language, their accent, their anatomy, their fashion, their profession, their attitudes and even their thoughts. You sink into their lives even if for just those few moments. And it is amazing how much you can muster from just a fleeting glance. There are so many nuances that you can notice in people which give away so much information.

I was sitting with a friend at Espresso house and we were discussing the different anatomies of men (it is improper to comment on women's anatomy so i will leave that out:-) - Danish men have longer foreheads, Swedish men have a huge gap between their upper lip and their nose, Finnish have longer heads and Germans are big built whereas Polish are leaner and of course the English have that unmistakable air about them. Americans you can hear from over a mile and French you may be able to smell from long distance if your nose is not blocked.

And of course their dressing style is a major clue to their nationality. Americans are mostly casually and clumsily dressed whereas Europeans pick their wardrobe very carefully.

Once they open their mouth their dialect/accent might be able to confirm further details of which part of that country they might belong to.

Moreover, their unguarded body language can tell you more about their personality than what you will understand if you chat with them for hours on end.

Ah! and maybe you are wondering if such an hobby is ethical - afterall you are invading the privacy of unknown people without their consent. If bird watching is a science, people watch enriches you with the understanding of your own species. As long as you are not crossing the line into voyeurism. Infact there is a lovely BBC serial called "Watching" which is a romance between a shy bird watcher and a lively people watching girl. And, there is a lot more information available in the book "People Watching" by Desmond Morris.

Arts & fiction

I have been lured to the louvre since i was a student of fine arts. I finally made it there on my last trip to Paris. The magnificience of the museum is beyond description both on the outside and the inside. Besides the fact that it hosts the original Monalisa - where all the tourists are mostly seen crowded. It has a colossal collection of art pieces from the pre classical, classical, neoclassical & rennaissance periods and an excellent collection of Egyptian and Mesopotamian arts. It is almost too difficult to come out of the maze of the museum. I remained unsatisfied even after sitting infront of some of the pieces for a long period of time - the one thing i enjoyed the most was taking the Da Vinci trail.
There are very few people i know who have not read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci code...this is one of my favourite fiction books. Of course a lot of fiction from the book stands to be clarified but a lot of subtelities in Da Vinci's and works of other artists of that period had been controvertial,mysterious and hence interesting. This was due to the political climate plus other social issues regarding race, religion and gender which lay in the forefront during those times in Europe.
Art being a major medium of communication - the artists did take a liberty or two which remained often hidden and was left to the interpretation of the beholder. It is what we call a "scotoma" or a blind spot created in an image which is invisible untill you decipher it.This is so typical of the Mannerism style of painting. Infact amongst many others, Carravaggios 'Death of the virgin' was also rejected by the commissioning convent based on the scotoma vigilance. And ofcourse there are innumerable interpretations to why Da Vinci in 'Wedding feast at Cana' shows Virgin Mary sitting next to Christ and holding an imaginary glass of wine ? Well, considering the colossal size and abundant detailing of that painting i would think Da Vinci forgot to draw the glass.
According to me the most overrated painting in the entire Louvre is 'Monalisa' - it is perhaps due to its over exposure that one fails to see the true beauty or maybe i fail to appreciate Da Vinci's 'sfumato' technique which has left the world contemplating weather Monalisa is smiling or not. She seemed downright grumpy to me especially with all that crowd around her.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

My latest hobby is to read all the books that i have read in English, to read the same again in Swedish. And i picked up this one since it did not look so thick in pages but in content it has left me brooding over it for much longer then it took me to read it.

This is a philosophical Spanish fable of a shepherd trying to realize his destiny and of course it is the journey that is more important than the destiny itself. The interpretation to each of us may differ but at the end of the day we are all looking either for that "elixir of life" or/& "the sorcerer's stone" that will turn all lead into gold.

But the fact that most appealed to me since i belong to the world of communication is to be able to speak and understand the "language of the universe". I am what my sister calls a "left brain person" (ie. a logical human being) or perhaps she means that i have only half a mind and that the other half is missing :)

I guess to be able to understand the soul of the universe and speak the language - you need to have the other half - "the right brain". I wished i knew how to do this and then i dont have to worry about learning swedish anymore :)

But since i dont even have a single "P" in my name - i decided to understand this universal language with the only half mind that i possess. I am no Einstien but i like to watch Discovery channel - and i have heard of the "Fibonacci sequence" or the "golden ratio". Now these are the mathematical interpretations of the rythms or the patterns as observed in the universe - ratio in the design of the leaves and trees, ratio of the land vs water on the earth, ratio of the solid and liquid in a human body...so on and so forth. So there is some universal pattern and hence a universal language if you try to understand it.

And so when i look closely there is some pattern that has to be adapted to learning a language which is more rythmic than a mere translation of words.

To be able to learn the language of the universe, I may need to evolve a few thousand years more. And then i may find my learning swedish completely futile. Just like the ironic realisation at the end of the book. But let us continue our journey for the time being and just try finding the "oasis".

However i would recommend you to read this book only when you have enough time to get your mind ##*## up. Alternatively you can watch the movie which is rumoured to be coming up soon with Laurence Fishburn as The Alchemist.