The Religion of Science

This piece of news had me hooked.

Makes one wonder how different Science and Religion are, or if Science is turning into yet another religion, not in terms of faith, but blind faith.

This statement in particular was very revealing: "I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain.

I wonder. I thought Science was the answer to the 'miracles' that took place in the mystical world.

A New Feature!

Yes, yes, I know I'm supposed to be on a sabbatical and leave my workaholic ways behind. I just had an idea and I thought I'll write about it as the last thing before I leave.

I''ve been told over and over that I'm a PJ person and that I have horrible PJs. Must really thank Manisha for bringing it to my notice. But, that's the point, no? They are supposed to be poor.

Anyway, so I've decided to start a daily PJ feature on this blog. It's a big demand on such a creative pursuit and I'll try to follow it as rigorously as possible.

We'll also make it contributive with people leaving their PJs in the comments section and I'll pick out the best and put them up in the next PJ post. They can also be emailed to me at swetankgupta@gmail.com.

I start with it in the next post, with, not one but two, yes two PJs as the opening offer. And we'll tkae it steady from thereon once I'm back from my trip.

Fabricated Societal Needs

In yet another short story, titled 'My Mother Lived on a Farm in Africa' by Abdulrazak Gurnah, there appears the following two sentences:

In the day, she was expected to stay close to Aunt Amina, and wait for chores to be given to her. She understood it was really to keep an eye on her because she was fourteen and a girl.

It got me thinking, as usual. I've always been vaguely disturbed by the idea of keeping girls 'safe', forbidding them from going out late at night because they might end up being raped or molested, and generally being asked time and again to 'be careful'. Yes, the continued threat of something happening is disturbing, so is the mankind at large for propagating such fears, but what has disturbed me the most all through, with respect to this and any other similar situations, is that the girls are being asked to sit at home (or need to be watched, or carry device some sort of a defense mechanism or various other acts of safety that ones sees or hears about) because someone else might harm them. My issue has always been that why should they suffer for the actions of someone else.

I've always been told that yes, it sucks, but there isn't a way out. It's a necessary evil and precautions must be taken since there's no other way out. That argument would shut me up for the time being because it seemed to make sense, but it still rankled and left me unsatisfied. Reading that line got me started on the issue again, and suddenly I saw a solution, simple, obvious and crystal clear. I don't understand why such an obvious answer had eluded me (or the population in general) till now. It's infeasible but it's just.

If we realize that girls aren't safe in the vicinity of boys in certain places or at certain times, and their presence must be compartmentalized, so be it. But, if the concern is the girls' safety after all because of the untamed carnal instincts of the male population, why restrain girls from going out at night or to places that are unsafe. It should be guys who should be asked to stay at home because if they go out late at night, the world would become unsafe. In this world, the girls would roam free and live without care, stay at home or go out, as they wish and as their needs demand. Since it is the guys who propagate this dystopian outlook, they should be the ones suffering, not the ones they target.

Yes, it needs a radical change in societal needs and outlook for this to happen but isn't it fairer to all? Does it not serve the purpose as well?

It isn't? It's not!

Roy Robin's short story 'The Caretaker' ends with the following sentence:

'It isn't the responsibility,' my mother said. 'I mean it is, but it isn't just that.'

Good story, nice ending, but that isn't why I'm writing this post. After I finished reading it, I was replaying the last sentence in my mind over and over again, and I realized I would have never written it isn't just that. I'd have, instead, gone with it's not just that. Both are valid contractions, but I never thought such differences could exist.

I don't know why this is so, if it's just a personal thing, or has it got anything to do with 'Indian English' as compared to 'British English'. Thought it was an interesting observation nonetheless.

Linguists. Others. Any opinions?

History to Astronomy/Astrology?

When one drives from Dhaula Kuan towards the IGI Airport, on the right hand side, there's used to be a Maharana Pratap Dwar, one of the entrances to Delhi Cantt. It was a mildly imposing gate and looked good.

Of late, its name has been changed to Taurus, Gate 3, in big, golden, stencilled letters. I'm not sure, but I think even the structure has changed a bit from the top. It looks bad.

I'm no part of the brigade fighting to save Hindi (though I support the sentiment), but this just doesn't make any sense. If nothing else, aesthetically, it looks and sounds much worse. Wouldn't their (whoever's doing it all) time be better utilized thinking over and changing something that would actually make a difference?

Stranger than Fiction?

Well it amazes me to see how many things in this world never cease to amaze me.

Just one tiny example. I received an email from Schlumberger HR asking me to make a dossier of 20-odd certificates which I will be required to carry during my induction program in Abu Dhabi. It included probably every certificate that I'd have obtained since class 10 (except for the birth certificate, which would be way before that) and the birth certificates of your parents, spouse and children, wherever applicable. I would like to presume I was born only after my parents were born, and how does it really matter what their dates of birth are or whatever else they are trying to gauge from those certificates.

The topper, though, was to carry a marriage certificate or a concubine certificate, if and whichever applicable.

Now, I've seen and heard of a very many things over the past few years, most more enlightening than not, but I really never imagined I'd hear of a concubine certificate! Do such things as these exist? Why would one want to be a certified concubine? Prostitutes, I can imagine, but then they wouldn't really be working in Schlumberger, or wouldn't be prostituting of they were earning in excess of $50,000 per annum. This is, of course, going with the prejudice that this is a profession borne out of necessity/depravity/force or various other such undignified reasons, and not out of choice. Even so, I can live with that certificate from countries where prostitution is legal.

The only sane explanation I can come up with is that SLB is a global company with a strong focus on the Middle East where the Islamic customs dominate, and it is allowed to keep multiple wives. The second and third and fourth wives would probably be the concubines with an official concubine status as opposed to married, though if they are wives, why so? I can't really think of anything else.

Views?

Ekspected?

Came across a name, Apexa Sharma, on Facebook news feed. I tried to pronounce it as Apex-aa, and it didn't sound right, even for a Western name. It was a few second before I realized that it's Apeksha or अपेक्षा, spelled with a difference. Why? WHY? Even the pronunciation isn't correct, strictly speaking. It would be अपेक्सा.

Compassionate Delhi?

Today when most eateries, food joints and restaurants strictly prohibit outside eatables within their premises, it came as a pleasant surprise when I could easily sit on a (plastic, Neelkamal, to be precise) chair in an open restaurant at Bhikaji Cama Place and eat the food my mom packed for me without being asked to leave. I was a little apprehensive initially that they'd ask me to move away even though I had ordered two soft drinks, so I pulled a chair in a corner and sat with my lunch. As for the plastic chairs, to their credit, all the chairs they had were plastic, and the same quality, so no discrimination there either.

What was surprising, and pleasing, was that three different waiters came to me within the duration of 15 minutes that I sat there, offering me a glass of water, while two came and asked me to sit at a proper table for four and eat my meal in peace. I declined their offer for I felt guilty of robbing them of a place for genuine customers, but just the gesture was so endearing. The owners, a Sikh father-son duo, were equally accommodating. It was the best part of my otherwise terrible day.

Wasn't Delhi supposed to be rude and mean and heartless? What happened suddenly? It reaffirms my faith that stereotypes are exaggerated and more often than not, not applicable. Also, there's more good in people than we like to believe. One just has to give them enough time to show it, or give oneself enough time to see it.

Mistaken Identity / Star Power

If you are having a phone conversation and the person at the other end of the line says, "I was talking to Salman a few days ago and he has no plans of coming to India anytime this year," would you ever think that the person being referred to is Salman Rushdie, even if the conversation was in the context of a literary festival? Since when did Rushdie become Salman?

God of the Gaps

Excellent concept, this. It's always a surprise what all is classified and documented and argued upon. Love Bonhoeffer's argument, irrespective of the fact that I may or may not believe in God:

"...how wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. If in fact the frontiers of knowledge are being pushed further and further back (and that is bound to be the case), then God is being pushed back with them, and is therefore continually in retreat. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don't know. ..." [Source: Wikipedia]

In extension, Argument from Ignorance, somehow very valid in everyday life if we consider ourselves and our limited acceptance of the world, is another well argued concept. Two very common statements being examples of this being:

1. "You can't prove God doesn't exist, so God exists."
2. "You can't prove God does exist, so God doesn't exist."


Darwin's birth must really have been a shitty time for God(s). He undid most of the work they had done over the millenia in just one lifetime. Maybe it was Satan himself, born to spite Him!

Quirky?

I judge people by the kind of footwear they buy and wear. I don't know why I do it but I do, and sadly, most people disappoint me. Horrible, horrible taste in footwear. I've only come across a handful of people who impress me with their choice of colour, design, style and appropriateness for the occasion.

More often than not, it's hard for me to look at people's feet for more than a few seconds, and it's even worse if they are the sort that do not cover the foot completely, showing dry/dirty/unwashed feet with yellowing nails that haven't been cut for a long time. Just completely puts me off.

Hunky Dory!

I've been seeing advertisements for the relatively new Hero Honda bike 'Hunk' for sometime now, and have also, on some occasions, seen the bike, mostly in red.

While it seems pretty good, look-wise, to me, I really wonder why a guy would buy a bike names Hunk. What guy would want to claim with pride that he rides a hunk?!