Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself

As I sit here in front of my computer, trying to put into words one of the most grandiose and absorbing reading experiences of my life, words fail me. Even David Mitchell could not have imagined that his magnum opus would turn out so wonderfully.

"Six interlocking lives- one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of time, genre, and language to offer and enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us" proclaims the back cover. More often than not, back covers are gross misrepresentations of the actual fact. Not this one. The first thought that came to my mind when I picked up the book was that the idea didn't seem new, but then again, no one had ever executed something as big.

An undoubtedly ambitious and risky undertaking. However, I like to think that a good author always finds the perfect balance between the two elements, and Mitchell certainly did just that. The sophistication and poignance of the  language, metaphors and imagery employed render it a poetic feel at times, making it all the more enthralling.

The novel essentially consists of six parts, each chronicling a person intricately linked to the other. The plot was a little mind bending every now and then, and I couldn't help but draw reference to the other mind bending films and books Ive read or seen recently. Mind you, of that category, there are quite a few. As the description so aptly put it, Mitchell completely erases the boundaries of time, and this book is definitely not one for the casual reader looking for a quick read. 

Despite the ease with which the book draws the reader in, it does require a little extra effort in order to grasp its magnitude fully. Several facets of Cloud Atlas which I thoroghly enjoyed were how Mitchell perfectly blends fact and fiction and history and foresight in a cohesive, compelling narrative. 

My favorite section of Cloud Atlas, titled An Orison of Sonmi-451 describes a world driven by consumerism and dominated by corporations, where countries instead of being democracies, are now corpocracies. I must confess, I had never thought of such a future for mankind. One where human greed would form the basis of governance. Only after reading about these fictional corpocracies, did I get thinking. At present, we live in a consumerist world where practically everything one buys or owns is influenced by a prevalent trend. The most obvious example being that of Apple products. No doubt, Apple as a brand does stand for cutting edge design and technological ingenuity, but there are alternatives that go unnoticed just because every third person seems to have one. On a more basic level, how many people actually stop to think and ask "Do I really need this?" before going out there and burning their wallets. The answer is, not many. For example, the tablet. Initially heralded as the new frontier in consumer electronics, people flocked to get their hands on "the future", as it were. I for one, don't see the point of owning a tablet considering that I have a laptop and a smartphone. Anyways, back to what I was trying to say. The way our ideas and spending habits are shaped today, will eventually lead to our downfall. We think the way the corporations want us to think. We say the things the corporations want us to say, well, you get the idea. Eventually, we will resemble sheep being herded, a stream being channelized, convicts being kept in line. It is a thought that makes me shudder.

In contrast to An Orison, Letters from Zedelghem is a lively, breath of fresh air kind of story. It chronicles the life of Robert Frobisher, a troubled, yet prodigious Englishman in pursuit of his musical ambitions. His character instantly enraptures the reader, and those of female persuasion, who have taken no prisoners in letting their feelings known, are left cringing for more! Letters from Zedelghem, I would say, is definitely the most artistic part of the book and Mitchell's mastery of the epistolary is something to marvel. On full display here, is once again, Mitchell's ability to use vivid imagery, as he transports the reader to countryside Belgium, where he/ she sees the sights, smell the fragrances, hears natures melodies and revels in a perfect little place.

The most exciting part about Cloud Atlas is that it has elements of practically every genre of book. In keeping with that idea, Mitchell also incorporates satire/comedy, action, suspense and folk to name a few to the ones already discussed earlier into the other parts. It's like reading six different novels at the same time, but with the mind bending reality that they are all linked, neither prequel nor sequel to eachother.

If you haven't read the book yet, I shall not keep you any longer. You are about to embark on a tour de force, one that you shall never forget. If you are thinking of watching the movie first, all I can say is that you are robbing yourself of the reading experience. Besides, I felt that, though it was a good effort, it was incoherent at times and a tad slow. If I hadn't read the book first, I don't think I would have been able to make sense of it. I now sign off by quoting Sonmi 451, "Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb,we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future".

Perfectly Reasonable Deviations

A considerable amount of time has elapsed since my last blog post, as I'm sure you would have noticed (or rather not). This state of dormancy, shall we say, has not been entirely down to  lethargy or a lack of inspiration, but because "life got in the way".

At the end of all this, I am now happy to say that I am officially done with one year of college. God knows, it has been an immensely trying period for me, as well as the 10 million or so other hapless souls pursuing their undergraduate degrees in India.To be honest, I feel much the same way Frodo must have felt after destroying The Ring of Power in the fires of Mount Doom.

As is customary with anything in life, there were highs, there were lows, and through it all I learned a lot, albeit not the kind of learning I thought I would be doing. Nevertheless, I would only be considered daft, were I to say that the experience was not worth it. I am sure that the friends and acquaintances I have made, will have some impact, however small, on the next few years of my life and that fills me with a sense of optimism.

In the time that I have been away from blogging, quite a few interesting things have been going on around the globe. The biggest headline has got to be the revelation of the NSA's PRISM program. That and the meteoric rise of Eric Snowden, who has been hailed as a messiah, a la Julian Assange.

Although none of us may want to admit it, we probably already knew someone was watching. That Big Brother was watching. I mean, it's foolish to think that they weren't, isnt it? In an age where information is power, any country, most of all America, would do anything to have as much of it as it can possibly get its hands on. The only question we have to ask ourselves is, how do we feel about that?

In the past decade or so, there has been a tremendous surge in the number of people that are active on social networks. Consequently, there have been shifts in general societal patterns. Gone are the days when one person telling the other "let's catch up sometime" by default, meant in person. Gone are the days when people limited their efforts to impressing family and friends. They now devote countless hours to building their social profiles to impress strangers. As a result, their own sense of what is true and what isn't, is so warped, that they truly believe that they are who they claim to be. They are driven by a greed, or rather a sense of insecurity, just like the Government watching them, to know what their "friends" are doing. Who they spend time with, where they go, what clothes they were, and a horde of other seemingly trivial questions.

Depending on the answers to those trivial questions, biased opinions are formed. These opinions form thoughts, thoughts lead to actions, actions shape behavior, behavior shapes character, and voila, there you have it, a new social order! As in any social order, there are bound to be miscreants. The miscreants of any real significance to be bothering about, unfortunately, are extremely well hidden. In order to weed these black sheep out, immense amounts of intel are requried. No stone left unturned. No profile left unswept. Surveillaince 1. Privacy 0.

To paraphrase Gary Oldman from The Dark Knight, it is what the people need, not what they deserve. They need it because it can go a long way to saving their skins. What they do not deserve however, is feeling unsafe telling anyone anything knowing that it is not a secret.
Personally, I have a neutral stance on the issue. For two reasons. Number one, I believe that no one really cares about blowing up the relatively docile neighborhood I live in (although one never can say these days!). And number two, most of the stuff people share on social networks are pretty insignificant when looked at from afar. Nevertheless, people do feel agrieved, and they deserve to be heard out. After all, their precious social images stand to be marred.

As far as I can see, the coming months are going to be filled with plenty of sleepless nights for lawmakers and the general public alike in the US, as they try and work out a compromise. The future of Eric Snowden seems uncertain, but then again, it was never going to be easy. I definitely am eager to find out how all this ends. Till then, remember, if you want to say something important to someone, that isn't a 30 something coffee and donut hog, say it in person. Send a postcard. Whatever.

P.S.

For those wondering about the title of this post, it's also the title of a compilation of letters sent to and written by Richard Feynman. I chose it as a sort of explanation to my temporary disappearance.

The One

The following is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago. It describes a post-apocalyptic world, and how it is saved by a man, simply known as 'The One'. This poem was in part influenced by my reading of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. The Road is also set in a post-apocalyptic world and chronicles the story of a man and his son trying to survive against the odds. The way McCarthy brings out the indomitable spirit of man, and the deep rooted bond between father and son are magical.  It was a deeply moving read and got me thinking. What if we found ourselves in the same state of peril? What would we do? This poem is a result of those musings.

The One

Sitting alone in his abode of science,
The One, has put an end to man's vain defiance.
A remarkable day for humankind,
A day of pride and tribute to the power of the mind.
His brainchild boasts of the power to end this self-inflicted period of pain;
A period literally frozen in time, with the heavens, all the while spewing black rain.

Now, an oracle, distraught and forlorn
Nevertheless with hope in her heart, peering into her looking glass,
Sees for the first time, brilliant shades of green, blue and yellow, as if the world had been reborn!
On the brink, is the Golden Age, Alas!

But the journey has been long and hard, full of sorrow and loss.
Beginning with that fateful day, the oceans met the heavens and unleashed their might.
The day Gaia thundered, shook, and put up a real fight!
Sending hordes of mere mortals to their father who art above.
Perhaps, for not showing their world enough love.

The One, repenting for man's many a misgiving,
Toiled and toiled till an elegant solution came into the reckoning.
The Holy Grail of our time has thus emerged from it's shadow.
And it is upto us to make sure we don't need to tomorrow.

"There are three kinds of people; those who see, those who see when they are shown, and those who do not see"

A Tale of Two Countries

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . . "

These famous lines which open Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities probably best sum up the states of German and Spanish football after the first leg of the Champions League Semi-Final. The Spanish teams, which contained no less than ten members of the FIFPro World XI for 2012 were undoubtedly the hot favorites to reach the final. Their mindsets pre-kickoff would have been that of supreme confidence and above all, belief, that reaching the final was inevitable. It was the best of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the epoch of belief, it was the season of Light, it was the spring of hope, we had everything before us. 

Fast forward ninety minutes. The result, total annihilation. Both Barcelona and Madrid, did not know what had hit them. It was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Darkness, it was the winter of despair, we had nothing before us. The players and fans could not help but hang their heads in shame, given what grim reading the final scoreline was. Take nothing away from Borussia and Bayern though. They were tactically astute, took nothing for granted and were totally deserving of their victories.

It all began in Munich on Tuesday night. Before kick off, there were no big surprises in the Barca lineup. Lionel Messi returning to the starting eleven after a hamstring injury was always going to be and touch and go, but wasn't unexpected.  The only surprise with the Bayern Munich lineup was the inclusion of Jerome Boateng ahead of Holger Badstuber  at the heart of the defense. 

The match began rather well for Barcelona, who saw quite a lot of the ball, in the opening 10-15 minutes. Bayern to their credit, were defensively well organized and managed to see off this spell without much ado. This was largely down to their excellent pressing and sense of positional play off the ball. They simply denied Barca the time and space to play that incisive final ball into Messi. The first goal was definitely against the run of play and displayed some critical flaws in Barcelona's defending: firstly, their inability to cope with set-pieces and secondly, the lack of a strong physical presence in the box. A seemingly unthreatening corner was somehow bundled home by Thomas Muller on 25 minutes.

The rest of the game was more of the same really, Barcelona dominating the possession, but unable to find a way through the resolute Munich defense. The unsung hero of the night had to be Javi Martinez. He was in the team for one reason, and one reason only, to break up the play and deny Barcelona any sense of cohesion. Although he is an extremely adroit and efficient passer of the ball, his role did not require him to showcase his distribution skills. In fact, no fewer than 20 players made more passes than him, and no one committed as many fouls. He shadowed Andres Iniesta the whole game, preventing the diminutive playmaker from dribbling or moving the ball as well as he usually can. His midfield colleague Bastian Schweinsteiger once again put in a fine display at the heart of the midfield through his workhorse ethic. Rather uncharacteristically, Franck Ribery's defensive contributions were crucial at times, and typified the team spirit Bayern showed. Even Thomas Muller, and Mario Gomez dropped deep to receive the ball when in attack, and pressed Sergio Busquets and Xavi into making hasty, and inaccurate passes in the midfield area, when in defense. 

The main talking points from a refereeing standpoint will obviously be the Gomez goal on 49 minutes and the Arjen Robben goal on 73 minutes, both of which should have been disallowed. The former for a clear offside, and the latter for a blatant foul by Thomas Muller on Jordi Alba in the box, allowing Robben to smartly tuck away with panache. Bayern will however argue that they were due some luck following two separate handball incidents involving Gerard Pique. In all fairness, Barcelona were responsible for their own downfall in the latter stages. As they continued to push further and further forward, they were always bound to be left exposed to the pace of Ribery and Robben on the counter. 

A major criticism of Barcelona will be that when the intricate pass and move style of play breaks down, they seem to be wanting when it comes to evolving a plan B. Tito Vilanova's tactics will certainly come under the scanner, and so will his complacency for not changing things on time. The first change was made after the game was already beyond them. Messi was obviously not 100% fit and it became clear, quite early on, that he was nowhere near the top of his game. In fact, he was nowhere at all. This internet meme probably summed up his contribution:

In the end, it was a well deserved victory for a technically brilliant Bayern team, who will be eager to wrap things up at the Camp Nou and make it two finals in a row. Whether Messi and Co. will turn up for the second leg, is a question that will soon be answered.

As if the result at the Allianz Arena wasn't enough encouragement, the news of Mario Gotze's shock decision to sign for archrivals, and potentially opponents in the final at Wembley, Bayern next season, seemingly spurred Borussia Dortmund on to a spirited team effort at the Westfalonstadion.

The team selection by both managers seemed fairly well balanced, if not a touch on the conservative side by Jose Mourinho. Luka Modric was preferred to Angel di Maria in a 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 formation. He played in a much deeper role than he is generally accustomed to, allowing Mesut Ozil to push up. Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira slotted in ahead of the backline as usual. Dortmund fielded a fairly strong attacking lineup with Jakub Blaszczykowski, Marco Reus, and Mario Gotze leading a tri-pronged attack behind star striker Robert Lewandowski. The game was all about tempo, and from start to finish, Borussia controlled it. Their forward transitions were swift, and their off the ball movement was exemplary. Defensively, very similar to Bayern Munich in the way they allowed Ronaldo and Real absolutely no cohesion at all. This forced Alonso and Khedira to spray aimlessly at a totally isolated Gonzalo Higuain.

In stark contrast to his opposite number, Robert Lewandowski was the complete center forward and showed off his predatory instincts and natural eye for goal on his way to becoming the first player to score a hat-trick against Real in the Champions League. All four goals were out of the top drawer and just reaffirms his status as one of Europe's most in-demand players. Much the same way Javi Martinez was the silent guardian for Bayern Munich, Ilkay Gundogan performed the dual role of breaking up the play as well as launching attack after attack. He was rather unfortunate not to be rewarded with a goal for his efforts following a terrific 25 yard run and shot. 

Real Madrid will at least have some hopes to cling onto after managing an away goal, courtesy Cristiano Ronaldo. If Borussia play with the same sense of fearlessness and diligence, then, in totally unexpected circumstances, we will have an all German final on the 25th of May.

Though many things were similar between the two games, one thing stands out. The home support. The atmosphere was electric, both at the Allianz Arena and at Signal Iduna Park. The Dortmund fans in particular, making the match extra special as always, with their tremendous support. A sea of black and yellow, a sea of buzzing, lively souls, that truly are the team 12th man.

In the space of two days, it seems, the balance of power in world football has shifted, from Spain to Germany.  If the performances of Bayern and Borussia say anything at all, its that team spirit, persistence, being clinical are of paramount importance. German efficiency is something the world has tried to replicate for so long, with varying degrees of success. Whether these performances will be another of those things that are going to be tried to be replicated, is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that German football is definitely on the up, and Spanish football, though by no means in decline, seems to have lost its sheen.

To conclude, we have one hell of an ending to this years Champions League to look forward too!

Genesis of the Imaginarium

It is by sheer happenstance that on this day, the day that I decide to foray into the world of blogging, that I rewatch one of my favorite scenes in film. A scene that has had a profound impact on the way I aspire to live my life. The scene is from the movie Dead Poets Society in which John Keating, played by Robin Williams tells his students: “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary!”

At the time of my first viewing, I must say, I was not overcome by some sudden rush of inspiration in the way that movie dialogues generally tend to invoke.Though I was not aware at the time, I did not fully appreciate the magnitude of what had been said. In fact, it would take several more views, and several more years of age and wisdom, for me to finally grasp the inherent power and beauty contained in those words.

Do you ever have one of those Monday mornings where you think back on how criminally you wasted time during the weekend? Where you start to think of what new horrors the coming week in your life would bring? It was indeed on one of those gloomy, retrospective Monday mornings that It dawned on me. I was doing nothing meaningful and significant with my life (some may vouch for that thought’s validity even now, but lets leave that aside). I had to seize the day, I had to make my life extraordinary, the way Mr.Keating wanted his students to do. In the immediate weeks and months of that day, I kept pondering the question over and over. What I could possibly do to achieve those things?

In a world that is populated by 7+ billion souls, it has always been the primal urge of every human being to stand out. As time passed, I came to the realization that each of us is already distinct. Our differences go beyond caste and creed, race and religion. They are nugatory both superficially, as well as in the grand scheme of things. I could now take one thing off my chest: the guilt of not having set myself apart, simply because, I now knew, that I didn't need to make a conscious effort to do so. The only thing left to do now was to formulate a way to make my life truly special. The only way to do that, I believe, is to  pursue intellectual superiority. At the end of the day, the only thing that can make the difference between a great life and a mundane one, is the intellect one possesses. The thoughts, ideas and opinions that one gathers and engineers are going to be the proverbial keys to opening a treasure trove of greatness.

It is one thing to pursue one’s dreams on one’s own, and an entirely different one to do it in the company of fellow beings. It is with you, that I shall travel, on a hopefully inexorable and magical journey through various realms and facets of life. My Imaginarium so to speak.

For those of you that have made it this far into this first entry, fret not, this blog will not be as boring or moralizing as it may have sounded so far. Think of it is as being the mission statement, the statement of intent, the vision. This blog will be a potpourri of my thoughts, ideas and experiences in a wide range of interests of mine that include Sports (particularly Football and Formula One), Books, Movies, Music, Economics, Philosophy and the Sciences.

So till the next time, carpe diem, people!