Lost in the Dark Side of the Moon

I made a new friend when I was about 14 years old. We liked the same music. We read the same books and shared our Phantom and Mandrake comics. I used to be fascinated by his collection of Life magazine, with the stunning photographs of Apollo moon landings. He used to be fascinated by my home-made telescope. At a time when we were struggling with our English, he was studying Russian on his own - not from books, but by listening to Radio Moscow over short-wave radio. We spent our academically important 10th grade of schooling by studying long hours together, late into the night. We were ‘different’ in a way, from the rest of the crowd in our area.

We then went our separate ways in college. Our meetings became less frequent as my world expanded in many dimensions. It was after a year or so, that I first began noticing changes in him during our infrequent meetings. He seemed diffident and unsure of himself. After a couple of months, a common friend said something was really the matter with my friend. I went to his home and met his mom. She was in tears. She said he almost never left his room, and sat by the window the whole day, his hands gripping the window bars. Even children had started making fun of him. I went in his room. He saw me out of the corner of his eye and looked away. He was clearly afraid. Afraid of something, I didn’t know what. I decided to act normal, and asked him if he would come with me for a walk. We walked for about 15 minutes, during which I made general conversation while he seemed terrified.

When I came home later that day, and thought about my friend, I realized he was sick. Mentally ill. He needed to see a psychiatrist. I did not know anyone who knew a psychiatrist, or even anyone who knew anyone who knew a psychiatrist. I myself was barely 16. I knew my family wouldn’t help; they’d rather take him to some miracle worker or recommend him to an astrologer. I then remembered that the clinic where my dentist practiced had a psychiatrist too. The next day, I again went to his home, met his parents, and tried to explain that their son needed to see a doctor.

My friend was Punjabi, a North Indian family. His mom was perennially in tears. His dad, who was almost double my size looked menacing, and couldn’t understand. He simply wanted to shake his son out of whatever he was going through and ‘be a man’. After much persuasion, they agreed to let me try and help, so the next day, we were off to see the doctor. The doctor spoke a few minutes with all of us and prescribed some medicines, after which I spoke with him alone. He said it was schizophrenia, and the medication would help only to a certain extent. He didn’t seem hopeful about my friend.

I was busy dealing with the vicissitudes in my own life for the next few months, after which I once happened to meet my friend. I took him to the terrace of my apartment building, where we used to spend time together. He would never look at me, and start to leave the moment I looked directly at him. I tried my best to make him comfortable, and he began talking slowly. He told me he spoke to Lee Falk every day. Lee Falk spoke to him for hours together, telling him what’s happening and what he should do. He had even shown him his own private luxurious bedroom in his rich mansion, something he never showed anyone - my friend gleefully revealed.

In our next meeting, he told me why he was afraid. He was being pursued and followed day and night by LTTE terrorists, who were out to assassinate him. He narrated detailed experiences of how Lee Falk gave him advance intimation of where they were going to kill him and how he had cleverly foiled five such attempts on his life.

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig writes:

He was insane. And when you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he’s insane, which is not to see him at all. To see him you must see what he saw and when you are trying to see the vision of an insane man, an oblique route is the only way to come at it. Otherwise your own opinions block the way.

The far side of the moon is never seen from earth. Humans first directly observed it only when Apollo 8 orbited the Moon. Is that why insane people are called lunatics? When there is Brain Damage, why does there have to be an Eclipse? Why is it Us and Them, and not We? Today, I feel a complex web of emotions. There is a feeling of guilt that I didn’t help as much as I could have. There is also the realization that even if I knew about mental illness at that young age, it was only from an academic perspective. I didn’t have the psychological or real-world wherewithal to effectively help. At the end of it all, there is a sense of loss.

I lost my friend to the Dark Side of the Moon, and he must be saying:

And if the cloud bursts thunder in your ear,
You shout and no one seems to hear,
And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes,
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

(In remembrance of World Mental Health Day, 10th October 2007, and my friend.)

Runaway Train

Prologue

I decided to add this prologue after the first few comments to this post. This post uses an incident in India, but is actually universal in nature and focuses on the moral, philosophical, and ethical decision-making involved in an emergency.

Main Post

Imagine you’re traveling from Mumbai to Pune by train, which is full to capacity, as usual in India. An additional engine is added to the train to climb the ascent of the Western Ghats from Karjat at sea-level to Lonavala at a height of 2000 ft. above sea level. Your train trudges laboriously upwards and reaches Lonavala after 1.5 - 2 hours. You enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Sahyadri ghats. It stops at Lonavala for a while and everyone gets back on board, ready to proceed.

Suddenly the train starts inching backwards. There are smiles, giggles, and wisecracks about what antics the drivers are up to. Some wonder if they’re simply changing tracks or if some engine replacement or something had to be done. The ‘inching’ turns into ‘crawling’, and soon enough, ominously, the train is now really ‘moving’ backwards. There is puzzlement all around and you are amused as to what’s happening.

There is no let up however, as the train starts getting momentum, accelerates further, and starts gaining speed. Amusement disappears as you and everyone else realize that something is seriously wrong. The train gains further acceleration and you’re already cruising at a reasonable speed. Everyone is peering out the compartment doors and windows only to find people from other compartments doing the same. “Has the driver lost his mind?” you wonder, as people start voicing obscenities at the train staff.

“But, was the staff (driver and guard at opposite ends), on the train when it started off at Lonavala?” someone asks and nobody really knows. The worst possibility comes to your mind - you’re on a runaway train, downhill, with no one at the controls.

By this time, the train is so fast that it would be dangerous to jump off. Panic and confusion all around you. You calm yourself and start thinking rapidly. You visualize the laborious twists and turns of the track as it winds down the mountains. You imagine a full-speed, no holds barred, runaway train hurtling across those tracks and overturning into the picturesque Sahyadri valleys. Is this how you were destined to die?

Point A: Question 1

At this point, if you jumped off, you assess your chances. Let’s say there’s a 70-80% probability that you’ll get seriously hurt, and a 20-30% possibility that you might die in the process. Will you jump off?

Point A: Question 2

Assume you don’t, and cling on to hope, that there will be some miraculous intervention and that you will be saved. After all, when one lives in a civilized and moderately developed society, it is a rational expectation that there will be systems and processes in place to deal with such emergencies.

Some people are seriously doubtful however. They’re contemplating jumping off. Will you discourage and/or prevent people from doing so?

Meanwhile, the train has reached a breakneck speed. The sparks from the wheels are now of alarming proportions and reaching the windows. People from another compartment come rushing into yours as their compartment catches fire. The ghat section, where the real twists and turns begin, is just around the corner. People are screaming, women are crying in hysteria.

Point B: Question 1

At this point, there’s an almost 100% probability of serious injury, including permanent handicap, and a 70% probability of death. Will you jump?

Point B: Question 2

Assume you don’t, and still have hope that you will be saved. However, there are people who are getting ready to jump. Will you discourage/prevent them, just because you have hope even if they haven’t?

Epilogue

The above situation is not hypothetical. This is what happened to the Indrayani Express in the 1990s, when my cousin brother was on the train. During a normal return journey from Pune to Mumbai (downhill), the train used to descend the height of the ghat section in approximately an hour. That day, it ran the same track downhill in 11 minutes. The train did not overturn. Few people who jumped off were seriously injured. There were no major casualties. My brother urged dozens of people not to jump and ended up saving them in the process.

(Photo Credits: the Indian Railways Fan Club)
(Title of Post: Runaway Train by Soul Asylum)

Superlative Style of Composition - In Action

I’ve written before about what I call the Superlative Style of Composition with regards to writing - where a writer blends conceptual and perceptual styles into the most persuasive style of writing. Let us take an example to illustrate this. I’m referring to Ergo talking about why India is not a tourist brochure.

The goal of the writer is to convey: “the predominant ethos of the Indian culture is not that of benevolence, friendliness, or rationality but the opposite of these.”

If one had chosen to write conceptually about this, it would probably have resulted in a dry essay on a purely “intellectual” level, to which many readers may not have responded at all. (If you’re wondering about the quotes around “intellectual”, I think it is an unfairly derided term. For more, read this).

Instead, observe the style of the composition: the writer intersperses perceptual experiences (in other words - what one experiences in a day-to-day life) with the conceptual inferences he draws from it.

This helps the reader understand and appreciate why the writer is drawing these conceptual conclusions from his experiences.

I’ve read tons of blog posts that either deal only with the perceptual (experience) level, or just simply conceptual ramblings, but very few that synthesize and harmonize the two. That is what I mean by the Superlative Style of Composition.

No surprises here, as Ergo gets the Intellectual Blogger Award from me!

Notes:

1. I am not saying one should agree with what is being said in this superlative style. My posts are about the styles of composition being used, not the content in them.
2. Ergo has probably not read my posts about Styles of Composition, and is completely oblivious to what I’ve written about. This is good in terms of objectively assessing what I’ve written!

‘Jaadu ki Jappi’ prevents robbery

After the Munnabhai style Gandhigiri worked in the case of American green card seekers, his “magic hug” resolved another problem (thanks to GF’s blog):

The Washington Post reports:

It started about midnight on June 16 when a group of friends was finishing a dinner of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp on the back patio of a District of Columbia home. That’s when a hooded man slid through an open gate and pointed a handgun at the head of a 14-year-old girl.

“Give me your money, or I’ll start shooting,” he said. Everyone froze, including the girl’s parents. Then one guest spoke.

“We were just finishing dinner,” Cristina Rowan, 43, told the man. “Why don’t you have a glass of wine with us?” The intruder had a sip of their Chateau Malescot St-Exupery and said, “Damn, that’s good wine.”

The girl’s father, Michael Rabdau, 51, told the intruder to take the whole glass, and Rowan offered him the whole bottle. The robber, with his hood down, took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese. He put the gun in his sweatpants.

The story then turns even more bizarre.

“I think I may have come to the wrong house,” he said before apologizing. “Can I get a hug?”

Rowan stood up and wrapped her arms around the armed man. The four other guests followed.

“Can we have a group hug?” the man asked. The five adults complied.

The man walked away a few moments later with the crystal wine glass in hand. Nothing was stolen, and no one was hurt.

Once he was gone, the group walked into the house, locked the door and stared at each other - speechless. Police classified the case as strange but true.

Bollywood is not so much “fantasy-world” after all!

Poetically Speaking, What is Poetry for me?

Again, something I’d written long time back, in 1990, to be precise. All criticisms welcome!

What do I write about?
The mountains, lakes, skies;
Or birds, flowers, and the like?

Here I am, amongst my daily troubles,
Wanting some peace of mind
Thought I would write a poem
But what do I write about?

I wonder what poets possess
That makes them poets
I wonder how their creativity
Is created…

How mischievous language is!
It completely describes an entity
As complex and vague as the poetic mind
By simply calling it poetic!

Is poetry born out of
Joy, Grief, and other such
Intense emotions only?
Or can this be called a poem
If I consider it to be?

I now suspect
That it needs great concentration
For a poet
To write a poem

And further
That there is a superior logic
Behind the rhythmic passages
Of a poem

Poetry is a means for the poet
To let his imagination
And romanticism
Run wild

If we invent norms
Regarding what constitutes a poem
Would it be a restriction
Which may destroy what it’s trying to preserve?

For some, a poem is simply
A rhythmic, lucid passage
Why can’t prose
Not possessing lucidity of words
But of thought
Be called a poem?

I can better appreciate rhythm and lucidity
In ideas
Than in words

How I wish I could write a poem
Of my many enchanting thoughts
Without suffering from the curse
Of being compelled to use language
Whose words do not always rhyme…

I am now catching a glimpse
Of the poetry
That is in the world
For me

How wonderful is the fact
That I am conscious
Of myself!
Am I not the poetry of Nature?

But then I wonder
Who is the poet of Nature?
Which itself is sheer poetry?
Does poetry require a poet?

Which leads me to think
Does a poet ever create poetry?
Or does he simply catch
The already existing poetry
In words?

Finally, what is poetry?
Which, I think
Everybody should decide for oneself
If they can

For me
The lucidity of ideas in a poetic work
Transcends the superficial rhythm
Of its words

I think the best example
Of what I intend to say
Is best exemplified
In this work itself
Which has been a poetry for me

Hasn’t
The lucidity of thoughts
And the logic of the thinking mind
Combined with the flavor of romanticism
Surpassed the absence of rhyme
To create this poem?

PS: This just goes to prove that I’m not a poet by nature, irrespective of my amatuerish attempts! 

Which half of your brain are you using at the moment?

There are some truths you figure out yourself without needing to study them elsewhere.

I learnt a bit of yoga when I was a child, and while doing pranayama, learnt that the left nostril leads to the right part of the brain and vice versa.

Some years later, I bought the book Whole Brain Thinking, and discovered the individual strengths (or shall we say personality traits?) of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. (For an excellent summary of what whole brain thinking is all about, see this article by John Adams)

Well, connecting the dots, I deduced the following principle:

When one is breathing through the left nostril, the right brain is active, and vice versa.

I decided to put this to the test and here’s what I found:

1. Yoga’s ancient adage about the nostrils connecting to the other side of the brain has been proven by science.
2. My hypotheses is held up both by yoga and what’s now called ‘alternative’ medicine or therapies.

I’ve tested this hypotheses of mine practically several times, and it turns out to be true without fail. What I have not been able to achieve is what the yogis preach: change the dominant nostril at the first sign of any physical or mental disturbance. Whenever I try that, not only do I not succeed, I get more frustrated and upset!

A few asides:

- Spiritual comes from the word Spiritus, which means breath in Latin
- In the movie Out of Africa, Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) bemoans how the foot has never been appreciated by the poets. I think the same is true about the nostrils. Consider this: Each day, the nose cleans about 10,000 litres of air, which has to be filtered and air-conditioned, to the, um, taste of the lungs - 80% humidity and 35 degrees Centigrade. It is no mean feat!

By the way, this is finally my 100th post. A very grateful thanks to all my readers - here’s some celebration to go along with it!

Styles of Composition - Music

This is a sequel post to Styles of Composition - Writing. Please read it before you read this post. Thanks.

Structural Music

On the one hand, we have complex, heavy, and unemotional compositions, which are vigorous and characterized by structure and grandeur. When listening to such music, personal and emotional responses are minimal, as the mind is involved in the development of the theme by the use of complex notes and their inter-relationships set in a mathematical framework. The Baroque and Classical musical eras - Bach, Haydn, and early Mozart - are representative of this style of composition.

Easy Listening Music

On the other hand, we have soft music, which has a flow and rhythm that makes it suitable for easy listening. Mental concentration is minimal as the music is based on elementary note variations and harmonies. But there is a sentimental touch to such music that involves the emotions of the listener. Folk tunes, pop songs, and simple melodies are examples of such music.

Superlative Music

Superlative music is a harmonious synthesis of these two styles of composition. It involves the greatest effort on the part of the composer and offers the most rewarding experience on the part of the listener.

Here, a profound theme developed by a simple set of notes within a complex harmony is presented with the grace, charm, and simplicity of soft music.

The result is that the listener’s mind is awed by the combination of melodies of the greatest strength and beauty with contrapuntal devices of the smoothest mastery and the listener’s heart overflows in response to the poignant human emotion embedded in the composition.

The principal technique employed in the composition of such superlative music is that of counterpoint. It is the technique by which two or more melodic lines are combined so that they establish a harmonic relationship while retaining their individuality. Very much like sentences in the superlative style of writing.

The mind of the listener is awed by the development of the theme through integration of the intricate melodies into a coherent whole, and his heart is swept away by the passionate, subtle intimacy of the orchestration.

It is this unison of the heart and mind that makes listening to such music a rewarding experience. Isn’t the sense of fulfillment that prevails after such communication what every composer and listener seeks?

The last three symphonies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart offer a classic example of the superlative style of composition. They are masterpieces which still excite audiences and baffle musical scholars.

No wonder that they have been called ‘the apotheosis of the symphony’!

Styles of Composition - Writing

This is a piece I’d written in 1991, with minor edits. I’m not sure what ‘categories’ I should post this in. When I read it today, it sounds too simplistic and I could be justifiably accused of over-simplification and generalization. However, I think it is still a humble and worthwhile exercise in the tenuous conceptual process of abstraction.

Styles of writing vary between two extremes.

Conceptual Style

At one end is writing that is succinct, heavy, and read and written slowly. Individual sentences in this style encompass ‘heavy’ content, complex concepts, and have an air of independence in relation to other sentences. Each sentence harbors a complete unit of information, and the writing is a conglomeration of such units. This entails the development of more and more complex and broader concepts built upon the units of information conveyed earlier, which in turn constitute concepts built upon the preceding ones.

In this style, the reader has to grasp the previous concepts before he can grasp the later ones. If a reader skips some content, the later content doesn’t make sense. For example, read Godel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid.

Since such writing deals essentially with the communication of the development of higher concepts, I call it as the style of writing on the conceptual level.

Perceptual Style

At the other end is writing that is elaborate, simple, and read and written rapidly. Individual sentences in this style encompass light observations, simple descriptions, and do not possess an entirety in them. Instead they ‘belong’ to the text and form an integral inseparable part of it.

This style of writing has a unique flow, which lends it favorably for rapid reading, since one can usually anticipate the subject of the following content. Even if a reader skips some content, he can usually “catch up” to what’s being said later.

Since this style deals essentially with the communication of perceptual matter through elaborate description of the perceptual experience of the writer, I call it as the style of writing on the perceptual level. For example, read Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat.

Words are conceptual in nature, hence conveying perceptual matter through concepts is a reverse process. The extent to which reading such content stimulates the perceptual experience depends on the ability of the writer.

From another perspective, the conceptual style of writing involves the reader and writer on an intellectual plane, whereas the perceptual style of writing involves them on an empirical plane.

The style of writing is determined, among other things, by the intended audience, the subject matter, and the psychological state of the writer.

Intuitive senses, event narratives, and expressions of feelings dominate the perceptual style of writing, whereas conceptual style is dominated by expressions of thoughts and ideas. Hence perceptual style is the result of a rapid and quick process and engulfs the reader in its rhythmic flow, whereas conceptual style is the result of a conscious, carefully planned process, and needs the concentration of the reader’s cognitive faculties.

Another dimension is that conceptual style of writing involves left-brain activity; perceptual style of writing involves right-brain activity.

Superlative Style

Superlative writing is a harmonious synthesis of these two styles of writing. It involves the greatest effort on the part of the writer and the most rewarding experience on the part of the reader.

Here, the writer communicates complex concepts in such a fashion that the reader is presented with a complex chain of concepts along with the perceptual experiences that motivated the writer. Hence, the reader is led through the development of concepts in a manner as if he were himself developing them.

The result is that the writing develops wider and an evolving set of concepts yet has a unique flow and an enjoyable rhythm. The text is heavy, yet simple to grasp, the sentences are independent, yet they belong to the text. Complex concepts are communicated, yet the text can be read rapidly. Matter is rationally thought out and planned, yet the reader has an intuitive feel of what is to come.

It is this unison of the mind and heart of the writer and reader that makes such writing a rewarding experience for both. Isn’t the sense of fulfillment that prevails after such communication what every writer and reader seeks?

Ayn Rand offers a classic example of superlative writing in her non-fictional works. ‘The Romantic Manifesto’ is a masterpiece exemplifying how the superlative style of writing can be employed to communicate complex concepts. The reader experiences a pleasant journey through profound subjects dealing with the psychological and philosophical implications of Art.

Expanding the horizons of this analysis leads us to the application of this principle to music…(contd.)

Yawning to Compliment

I knew it, and it’s now proven: A yawn is actually a compliment.

BBC Reports:

Yawning may appear the height of rudeness, but in fact your body is desperately trying to keep you awake, according to research from the US.

The common wisdom is that people yawn because they need oxygen, but the researchers at the University of Albany in New York said their experiments showed that raising or lowering oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood did not produce that reaction.

Their evidence suggested instead that drawing in air helps cool the brain and helps it work more effectively.

Yawning therefore delays sleep rather than promotes it.

The desire to yawn when others do so may also be a mechanism to help a group stay alert in the face of danger.

So the next time you are telling a story and a listener yawns there is no need to be offended - yawning, a physiological mechanism designed to maintain attention, turns out to be a compliment.

Boy, how I would like to enlighten all my school teachers!

I’m in the queue, so I have lesser IQ?

My cousin, an eldest sibling, alerted me to this news finding: The eldest children in families tend to develop higher I.Q.’s than their siblings, researchers are reporting, in a large study that could settle more than a half-century of scientific debate about the relationship between I.Q. and birth order.

Salient Points

• The study was carried out only on men. Researchers say sex doesn’t matter, and that findings would apply equally to females.
• The researchers looked at IQ scores in 250,000 men entering mandatory military service. They found a significant difference in IQ scores in 60,000 pairs of siblings.
• Men who were first in social or birth order had, on average an IQ about 2.3 points higher than those who were second in social or birth order. This pattern continued in the sense that second born men had higher IQs than the third born, and so on.
• The causes are social, not biological.

My Observations

• Interestingly, about a year ago, Medical News had reported findings about a similar study, conducted in the US, with exactly opposite results.
• Though the study doesn’t cover single children, the social factors that are cited as responsible for higher IQ in elder siblings would work wonders when there’s only a single child. So does this mean countries like China, with a one-child-per-family program will produce a nation of geniuses?

For Parents

• Parents should not be unduly concerned about these results. Having high IQ and knowing how to use it are different attributes.
• A child might score a few points lower in their IQ but have other assets such as curiosity, imagination and what is increasingly being called “emotional intelligence” that helps them use their IQ more effectively.
• If you have several children, then spending some one-to-one time with each one is probably a good thing to do but if you can’t manage it, don’t lose sleep over it.
• Parents who recognize the different niches that their children fill can enhance the family’s intellectual environment by exploiting each child’s expertise, researchers say.
• While even slight differences in I.Q. score can be important for some, the test measures a narrow set of skills. Excessive attention to it can blind parents to the diverse and equally rich expertise that later-born children usually develop.

For Elder Siblings

• Chill out!

For Younger Siblings

Don’t despair:

• You can kill your elder siblings (as suggested by another youngest-in-family cousin)
• If the above sounds anathema to you (even if you have low IQ), you can encourage your parents to have more children (so you’ll have higher IQ than them)
• You already have impressive friends and are in distinguished company
• Evidence suggests that younger siblings are more likely than older ones to take risks based on their knowledge and instincts.
• The study did not look at the effect of age gaps on IQ. But previous research has suggested that a younger sibling with a large enough age gap might be able to recoup the IQ points.
• The study was conducted in Norway. If you’re Norwegian, as per Asterix, you’ve nothing to fear. Even if you’re not, you’ve nothing to fear. The study doesn’t talk about cultural differences in upbringing.
• It doesn’t mean younger siblings aren’t more intelligent in other ways, like emotional intelligence.

Further, the New York Times quotes experts:

To distinguish themselves, younger siblings often develop other skills, like social charm, a good curveball, mastery of the electric bass, acting skills. They are developing diverse interests and expertise that the I.Q. tests do not measure.

This kind of experimentation might explain evidence that younger siblings often live more adventurous lives than their older brother or sister. They are more likely to participate in dangerous sports than eldest children, and more likely to travel to exotic places. They tend to be less conventional than firstborns, and some of the most provocative and influential figures in science spent their childhoods in the shadow of an older brother or sister.

Firstborns have won more Nobel Prizes in science than younger siblings, but often by advancing current understanding, rather than overturning it.

It’s the difference between every-year or every-decade creativity and every-century creativity,” Dr. Sulloway said, “between innovation and radical innovation”.