On gossip

"Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules." 

-Douglas Adams

Why do we like to gossip? It gives us so much pleasure to talk ill of others. Spreading rumours, back-bitching, and in general defacing a third party fills us with joy and glee. Perhaps it is that we take solace in the misfortunes of others as they help us forget, however temporarily, our own. Maybe we do it to hide our own shortcomings from others, and more importantly, from ourselves. A person with soiled clothes would naturally enjoy throwing mud at others. If one thinks about it rationally though, it would be a much better world if people with soiled attire simple cleaned up their acts instead of seeking to mar others. 

Another leading cause of gossip is idleness. It is a well known fact that people who have nothing to do, babble. after all, an idle mind is the devil's workshop.

On a side note, I watched the movie 'The Invasion' yesterday. It is a remake of the 1978 film, 'Invasion of the body snatchers.' I found the new film to be very enjoyable in the sense that it manages to create a tense atmosphere in the first few minutes and manages to sustain it throughout. What I liked most about it though is the question that it poses, 'would the world really be a better place if human beings lost their primal instincts and became in the real sense, civilized? More importantly, would they still be human?'

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The song for today is 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' by one of the greatest bands of all time, Iron Maiden.

Superb Saturday

Today was a good day. For one thing, there was no class, it's a weekend...duh! Partied with some good friends in the afternoon, had excellent food, and spent some quality time sleeping/ making music/ doing-nothing-particularly-useful. 

Unfortunately, the next week brings with it the spectre of exams. Although I am at a point in life where I have attended so many tests that they are no longer a big deal, this time I have decided to score respectable grades. It will require a little more effort that I usually expend on these pointless ventures, but I believe it will be worth it in the end. 

On an unrelated note, I finally managed to watch the movie 'United 93'. It is the chilling story of the passengers on board United flight 93, which was the only aircraft that missed its target on 9/11. The movie is intense and gripping. And even though we all know its outcome, I still found myself hoping against hope for a non-tragic ending. 

It set me thinking about terrorism and violence. If we are to be called a civilized species, we really should eliminate violence as an option. After all, 'violence is the last resort of the incompetent.' 

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The song for today is 'November Rain' by Guns and Roses.

Revolution, 2011.

Today I read about and watched a very nicely done video on the recent revolution of the Egyptian people. After decades of being suppressed by a dictator, the men, women and children of the great nation took to the streets in a massive yet peaceful protest. On 11th February 2011, the autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak stepped down, unable to hold his own against the people he once ruled. The world watched in awe as history was made, and the consequences of this event are still being speculated upon. 

One thing about this successful revolution that really inspires me and gives me hope is its peaceful nature. The protesters were constantly chanting 'we are peaceful' even as they marched in the thousands. In an age where a still immature human race holds in its tender hands, the weapons capable of its own annihilation, it is heartening indeed to see the power of non-violence. As has been throughout history, once again it has been shown that no amount of force can stand against the united will of a people who thirst for freedom. 

I salute the people of Egypt and wish them, from the bottom of my heart, a bright, prosperous and free future.
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For today, I have picked a song that reflects my feelings on the revolution. It has very inspiring lyrics and uplifting music. Do give it a listen if you haven't already heard it. The song is: "Rise Today" by Alter Bridge.

100,000 Watts of Rock

Today I went to a concert. The Malayalam rock band Avial was performing. Enjoyed it thoroughly. There is something about rock and metal music that is very different from other genres. Instead of being sweet and tickling your senses, this kind of music is intended to assault your very core with pure face-melting loudness. Contrary to popular belief though, it is not noise. In fact, it has the opposite effect of noise. Instead of grating on your nerves and causing you discomfort, this kind of music purges everything else from your mind. It is, in this respect, just as effective as meditation. 

Music knows no boundaries. There is no language barrier here. It is as if every single one of us was born with the ability to enjoy it. I believe that it can be a uniting force across the globe. Music transcends nationality, race, religion and gender. It is pure expression, of thoughts, of emotions, and of everything else that makes us human. Above all, music is pure creativity. I am still resonating from the concert and words aren't really coming forth like they usually do, so I am going to stop now.

The components of creativity.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

-Scott Adams

Today, as I sat in the computer graphics lab for 3 hours and hammered away at the keyboard, I realized that there is a certain creativity involved even in something as logical and straightforward as coding. The code written by two people to do the same thing still contains very noticeable differences. The formatting and indentation of the code differs and in some cases even the very logic used to achieve the result varies vastly. Words like 'elegant' and 'beautiful' are just as applicable to code as they are to poetry. 

So what is it that constitutes creativity? Is it an inborn ability to recognize patterns and shapes where others see none? Is it the skill to generate aesthetically pleasing sequences of words/tunes/colours that takes years to master? Or is it just plain individual thought and its elegant expression? The answer, in my opinion, is all of the above.

Some people are born with an innate ability to spontaneously explode into a process of creation that leaves the mind boggled and frozen in awe. Others work at their art for ages before their thoughts can find a worthy expression on a medium. Some others are creative in the sense that they dare to create things nobody has ever had the courage to think of before.

I believe that there is a logic to creativity, a pattern, a design that follows mathematical laws. I also believe that these laws are so complex that we cannot understand them while in the relatively weaker concious state of the mind. This may be the reason why our imagination seems to be much stronger while we sleep or meditate. 

I once attended a creativity workshop where I learnt a very simple way to be creative. The trick is to find one way to do something and then ask yourself the question 'how else?' multiple times until you have found a unique and possibly beautiful answer. The way this works is that when we approach a task the first time, the left brain comes up with the most logical and straightforward way to do it. We must then urge and cajole the brain into coming up with more and more answers until the left part is out of solutions. It is then that the usually dormant right part awakens. It is the job of this part of the brain to solve things one has never encountered which means coming up with something new and hence being creative.

A simple exercise in creativity would be to find a hundred ways to divide a square into four exactly similar parts. If you get stuck at less than a hundred ways, ask yourself the question 'how else?' Trust me, there are more than a million ways to do it.

A dearth of thought

As I gradually get into a routine, the days start to blur together. The nights seem to vanish in the blink of an eye. The purpose of it all seems questionable. How unfortunate then that almost everything in this civilized world of ours encourages a routine. 'A systematic approach' some call it. Others call it a rut. Everyone knows that it is boring and there is nothing more effective at making a person brain-dead than a routine.

The human mind is a complex, powerful and yet delicate monstrosity of an organ. It must be carefully nourished and regularly exercised in order to achieve peak performance. From the very childhood, as the mind slowly grows and wraps itself around and extends beyond the skull of its host, it craves encouragement. It enjoys challenges and looks forward to solving problems. This natural curiosity and thirst for brain-food rarely survives into adulthood. Education ensures this. Most telling is the fact that many of our greatest scientists and inventors were unceremoniously thrown out of schools when they were kids. 

If the human mind is, on a regular basis, discouraged and forced to conform to a mediocre standard, it initially fights, then resentfully submits and finally accepts its fate and goes into a perpetual comatose state of inactivity. A routine does just this. When one follows the same schedule every day, there is nothing new for the mind to do. Its higher functions are no longer needed and are hence shut down. The human becomes nothing more than a biological machine running a program in infinite loop.

There are ways to break out of this stagnation. Stimulation of the brain on a regular basis becomes an absolute necessity in this conformist world of ours. Individual thought and expression become absolutely critical in an environment which seems to beat all its inhabitants into an unrecognisable pulp of average bodies and even more average minds. This is where creativity comes in.

Midnight oil

I heard about this experiment they once conducted on a mouse. Electrodes were connected to the pleasure centres in its brain and it was taught to press a button which would stimulate them. The result was that the mouse kept pressing the button and eventually died of starvation. Yes, it ignored all its other needs. 

We are more similar to mice than we think. Last night, I sat up till 5 am, composing music on my PC. I ignored my need for sleep until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I was driven by the highest sort of pleasure, the one that comes from creative expression. The result was that I slept through most of today. I got attendance for it though, so I don't mind. 

What is creativity? Where does the drive come from? Why is it so pleasurable? These are questions I often dwell on. I'll be sure to discuss the answers to them in the coming days.