Views on Time Travel

Time-travel has always been a fascination for mankind. We have always in our cultures tried to play god, by wrestling with the amount of control we have over our surroundings. Ever since the concept of time travel was conceived, we have seen it as a means to control our circumstances, or even change them, by changing the cause and thereby the effect. However, there are issues to consider. I intend to talk about time travel, and when time-travel is possible by using the paradoxes involved in time travel, the Novikov principle, seen through the perspective of the butterfly effect.

First of all, let us think about a simple problem. Consider this. You go back in time, and kill your grandfather before he met your grandmother. Now if you did this, you would prevent one of your parents, and by extrapolation, yourself from being born. But if you were never born, how would you travel back in time to cause this event to happen? This is called the grandfather paradox.

Now think of this problem – that of a man who travels back in time to discover the cause of a famous fire. While in the building where the fire started, he accidentally knocks over a kerosene lantern and causes a fire, the same fire that would inspire him, years later, to travel back in time. Here’s another one, that of a man who travels back in time and impregnates his grandmother. She would, as a result, give birth to the man's father, to whom will be born the man himself. This man would have to travel back in time in order to ensure his own existence. This is called the predestination paradox, which is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. It exists when a time traveller is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" him or her to travel back in time. This paradox is in some ways the opposite of the grandfather paradox.

A variation on the predestination paradox which involves information, rather than objects, traveling through time is similar to the self-fulfilling prophecy, which is is a prediction that, in being made, actually causes itself to become true. A man receives information about his own future, telling him that he will die from a heart attack. He resolves to get fit so as to avoid that fate, but in doing so overexerts himself, causing him to suffer the heart attack that kills him.

The common thread running through the above three examples is that the normally accepted definition of causality is reversed, wherein the effect becomes the cause of the effect, which is the cause and so on. In the first example, the person would not have traveled back in time but for the fire that he or she caused by traveling back in time. Similarly, in the third example, the man would not have overexerted himself but for the future information he receives. In the second example, the man's very existence would be pre-determined by his time traveling adventure. This also raises the paradox of which came first – the time travel or his existence.

In fiction itself, this concept has been dealt with quite often, most prominent examples being the story of Oedipus Rex and Achilles. Lord Krishna, too is a famous example. In filmdom, I don’t even have to tell you about The Terminator and its sequels, which rely almost totally on this paradox as the centre of their story. One could argue, as many did in the case of the Terminator’s particular paradox, that if the soldier sent back in time did not impregnate Sarah Connor, John Connor would still be born. The very simple counter-argument here is that only if the soldier who came back impregnated her, she would believe what was going to happen in the future and bring her son up, training him to be a fighter.

The “Back To The Future” series also exploits this concept to a huge extent. But here, again, there is a glaring loophole. If the scientist and the boy went to the past and altered something, obviously the boy would be missing in the present. In this case, the altered future would involve another version of the boy, in which case the boy that left to the past is an extra in the space-time continuum. Strange, isn’t it?

Obviously with such buildup about loopholes and paradoxes, one must think I’m getting somewhere. Well, I am. I present to you, the Novikov Self- Consistency Principle. This was postulated by Dr. Igor Novikov in around 1985 to solve, or rather explain the problem of paradoxes in time travel. Simply put, the principle states that any event which could give rise to a paradox exists, then that event has a probability of zero.

To prove his theory, Novikov did not rely upon conventional paradoxes like the grandfather paradox. He relied upon a scenario with a more mathematical/statistical bent. He considered the scenario of billiards ball being fired into a wormhole in such a way that it would go back in time and collide with its earlier self, thereby knocking it off course and preventing it from entering the wormhole in the first place.

It was found during the course of this experiment that there were many trajectories that could result from the same initial conditions. For example, the billiard ball could knock itself only slightly astray, resulting in its going into the past slightly off course, which results in its earlier self only being deflected slightly. He found that this “sequence” of events which is actually a causal loop (read predestination paradox) is completely consistent, and does not result in a paradox. Further, he saw that the probability of such consistent events was nonzero, and the probability of inconsistent events was zero, so no matter what a time traveller might try to do he/she will always end up accomplishing consistent non-paradoxical actions. In other words, no action a time-traveller takes will significantly alter the course of history.

Now getting back to our discussion. The Novikov principle, however, makes an assumption that only one timeline can exist, or as a corollary, multiple timelines cannot be accessed. However, this does not make total sense, because when the time-traveller returns from his travels to the same timeline, he will have returned, in the event of a single timeline, in a changed state, albeit minor. This is where the butterfly effect comes in. But before that, let us lay down the logic. If the traveller comes back changed, there are a few things to be considered. First of all, if he has changed, he has to have an innate knowledge of where exactly he will return, this knowledge caused by the events he has undergone himself after the point in time he changed. This, again, is absurd because the human mind can know based only on what it has seen or atleast perceived. Thus, this kind of knowledge would, if at all existent, be deeply subconscious and incapable of manifesting itself in the short while that it takes for the traveller to return.

Second of all, when the time-traveller left, he would have left a life behind. Now, one timeline seems to explain that he merely comes back and takes his place in the timeline after this travels. However, once you think about it, it seems absurd, because once the time travel is over, who exactly takes the place? Is it th entity who traveled back in time and changed something, or is it the entity who grew up through time? To make things clearer, let us involve the Novikov principle in an example. Suppose I realise I would like to see myself when I’m fifteen and travel back in time and do so. Thus, a distinct memory has to be implanted in my 15-year-old mind about seing myself and how I would look from the future, when I’m 22 (scary thought that is). So now when I come back to the present, would I still see myself, that 15 year old, who has grown to be 22, or has time frozen, waiting for me to come back and resume functioning, or will things just be normal? The entire proposition seems to ambiguous, since it stands to reason that once time-travel is introduced, the traveller begins to exist, outside time.

Moreover, the Noviko principle only seems to be covering its tracks when it says that no matter what action the traveller takes, nothing significant will happen changing the course of time. This is where, as I said earlier, the butterfly effect comes in. The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamic system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. Essentially, if crossing a street when I was 16 was prevented, I might be in a very different position than I am today. In other words, and on a more philosophical note, everything is relevant to everything else. The concept refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or, for that matter, prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena.

Given a system and a large enough time frame, slight variations in the initial conditions can cause huge variations in later conditions in the system. Now, the novikov principle suggests that only minute changes are possible in time travel, but the net result cannot be avoided, as per laws of probability. My major argument against that is that initial conditions do play a huge role. Moreover, not many real-life phenomena subscribe to probabilistic laws. For example, the binomial theorem in probability says that there is equal probability of heads and tails occuring on a toss. However, this does not mean that in 100 tosses, there will be 50 heads and 50 tails. Such an event is extremely rare, so much so that it might be a poisson event. Thus I state that the butterfly effect holds good.

There is another point I’d like to make. I would say that time travel is unambiguous and feasible only if there exist parallel universes and multiple timelines. Only if we find a way to transverse universes and timelines can time-travel be possible. What I mean is when you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, you do so in (or your actions result in the creation of) a parallel universe in which you will never be conceived as a result. However, your existence is not erased from your original universe. Thus, after the time travel is over, the act of the completed journey results in you returning to another parallel universe, where you resume life as before, without any hiccups. Another possibility is, along the lines of David Deutsch, that if backwards time travel is possible, it should result in the traveler ending up in a different branch of history than the one he departed from. This view could subscribe to the Novikov principle in that no significant change can be made to a timeline, if the change maker is from that timeline. However, a parallel universe and thus a parallel timeline can be changed by one who is not from that timeline.

This makes perfect sense logically, but is this practically possible? It is a widely regarded theory that trvelling back in time means travelling faster than light. However, I don’t believe this to be the case, since travelling faster than light very simply means you ge to see things before others do, and is not actual time-travel. Thus, I subscribe to the views I have put down here, and further state that such technological advancements might not be round the corner, and don’t seem likely, but then again, when Jules Verne wrote about the Nautilus in 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, submarines did not exist. Will man ever time-travel? It is unlikely, but as the saying goes, you never know. Only Time will tell.

Ramblings Of A Weary Traveller

Prose after a long time, but I have a point to make.

It's true. Love is god. No, i do not mean the love a couple share. However, that too is incorporated in what I'm saying. Love - unconditional true Love, which is rare, IS God.

I am a rebel spritualist. I refuse to conform to the norms of any religion. I believe there is a God who watches over us. To a certain extent, I agree with the Hindu notion of a Jeevatma and a Paramatma which are two entities but are made up of the same essence. I believe God resides in each of us. We are born divine - Deities, each of us. We lose track of that along the way because we listen to the unenlightened.

We, in today's world have learnt how to make a living, but forgotten how to live. We justify the loss of others with our gain. How sad is that? We - at least some of the privileged ones - do not even stand in queue to visit the Gods we worship. We get "special darshan". We sin all we want, and then perform a few Pujas and give temples money in the fervent hope that God will forgive us and make everything right. Well, any God that functions like that is not God. That kind of entity is a coolie - a labourer who works because he is given money. Now answer me this - is this the kind of belief system we should build our society on? Do a kubera puja, you will be rich. perform a sumangali puja, your husband will live long. I mean, what the hell man......

Life goes way beyond material success, but we seem to have forgotten that. Like I said, we have learnt how to make a living, but forgotten how to live. There are more houses in the world today, but fewer families. We are so caught up in the concept of the "individual" that we forget the spark of divinity within us. It should manifest itself within us in the form of love. More often than not it does, but we tend to ignore it. This happens because the spiritual side of us needs nourishing, but we....well, we dont feed it. And please do not misunderstand. By saying spiritual I do not mean we pray and that feeds it. Prayer is futile without action. I will even go as far as saying do not pray, but compensate for that with action. In my opinion, the idol that cannot wipe the tears of the devotee praying before it is not worth praying to.

How many times have you cried for the death of a friend, even if he/she wasn't all that close to you? How many times have you sacrificed your lunch for a friend? How many times have you smiled in the full satisfaction that you have helped somebody else? Compare these numbers with the number of times you have chanted the mahamantra, or sung hymns and said hallelujah. If the latter is greater than the former, then quite frankly, it doesnt make a difference whether you are alive or not.

If you cannot make a difference to people's lives, what in God's name are you doing here? The secret to life is not how far you get, but how many people you help get along their journey. Travel further not just for yourself, but also to help more people. I know I'm sounding like an idealist, but i have been enlightened, and I have sworn an oath to myself that I am never going to be the same. The difference in me will not be in my salary, or my grades, or the number of friends I have. It will not be in how influential I am, how successful I am or how I have made it big in life by any parameter. It will simply be in how much use I am to others. I vow that I will make a difference to the lives of people. Maybe not a lot of people, but more than i make a difference to now anyway.

I have taken the first step towards being the God I was born as. Now you look within yourself - can you find the spark within you? Do you have the faith to embrace the powers you were born with? Look within, and maybe....just maybe you will see that the force is not with you, it is IN you.

The 4 Seasons - "Season" 4 - Fear

Standing at the edge of a cliff
About to take the plunge
Wondering if the future will
My past deeds expunge

I feel a tingling, a stir within
A completely new emotion
Hitherto I had not known fear
For which I was my own devotion

As I walked into that ominous room
My whole life before me
I realised this was not in my power
And that thought unnerved me

Twenty minutes, and they were done
Like a train they ran me over
I didnt see light at the end of my tunnel
For me there was No Leaf Clover

A little while later, I was informed
That I had filled the position
Floods of relief swept over me
To put me in sunny disposition

Only I will know the Fear I felt
The shudders and the recurring pangs
For Life is what happens to us
When we're busy making other plans

Fear is the essence of the Human Soul,
And some learn to hide it well
I saw that only if you care, you feel Fear
And that is Life, in a nutshell



I know this isnt as dark as the others, but what the hell, this is the only major fear I felt. Hopefully my writing skills haven't left me along with the darkness

Cheers

The 4 Seasons - "Season" 3 - Loneliness

He watches the sun burn down the west
And he lets his mind dwell on the past
His memory drifts back thousands of years
To a time where he thought it would all last

At that time, he thought he had it all
A wife, a son, a beautiful home
Work was aplenty and so was love
Now all lay scattered, shrouded and torn

How ironic that life was his curse
He was doomed to exist forever
Life after life he embodies and lives
Detesting his lonely endeavour

Alone he is, and alone he lives
Every relationship is fleeting
The sinews of his shadowy heart
Grow weary with every beating

Onward he moves, living his life
Emptiness gnawing at his soul
No way to end his cursed life
The bells of infinity take their toll

Loneliness is a cancer that grows witin
Eating into our flesh with relish
Fire and brimstone lack its wrath
Reducing us to the state of the hellish

The 4 Seasons - "Season" 2 - Envy

Green is the feral glow in his eyes
As He stalks his unwary prey
With the stealth of a cat He moves
He will take what she has today

His body tingles at the mere thought
Of what he will possess after
He craves the periphery of her form
At the vision, He supresses His laughter

He stops her, requesting for help
"My arm is broken", He says
Unsuspecting, the young girl obliges
Oh what a price, she pays

A sickening thud pierces the night
She falls down, blank
A quadruped silently watches her body
As He drags it into His van

It is finished, the job is done
He is wearing that which He craved
Next morning, another Skin He sees
Arouses His desire depraved

We covet what we see everyday
Green desire within us will burn
Envy rips us right to the bone
Our very sanity it doth govern

The 4 Seasons - "Season" 1 - Anger

It starts slowly, deep within
From the very depths of the soul
The twisted sinews of a heart wounded
Unhealing scars that take their toll

Blades flashing, the oppresors ravag'd
As he stood helplessly watching
The behemoths smiled with blood-stained teeth
As he felt in his veins the boiling

He shudders at the memory
Of the pain, blood and gore
A blood-curling vengeance takes shape in his mind
He will leave them tattered and torn

He feels not the pool of blood
In which he was left to die
A grim smile spreads over his lips
At the knowledge that he will survive

Strange how Anger gives us strength
In times when all goes wrong
'Tis anger that lends the tune
And meaning to life's morbid song

The 4 Seasons

This is a short introductory passage to present to you all, "The 4 Seasons".....

I'm writing what I consider my Magnum Opus. Antonio Vivaldi wrote a series of concertos called The 4 Seasons, exploiting the violin to the extent humanly possible. I am writing a series with the same name, dealing with four emotions. Its a poetic tribute to Emotion in itself, but you know me, I write only dark stuff so my four seasons are nothing but 4 emotions which are Anger, Envy, Loneliness and Fear.

What I am doing is writing four separate poems, and therefore four separate stories which have these emotions linked to them. the last stanza of each poem will explain what role the emotion plays in the story, so to speak. The first one will be on my favourite emotion, Anger......From there, lets see where it goes.....

Cheers

Love.......Again

Screaming in pain,
I lay on the barren land
Wounds inflicted upon my head
My heart and hands
Screaming in vain,
I lay under the scorching sun
Nobody came, Nobody came

It was then i swore
Never to love again
Never to give my heart away
Never inflict myself with pain
Those words i engraved upon my heart
and my heart began to say:
Nobody enter, Nobody enter

But then out of the shadows
There came one so fair
This one was different
If she were not mine, my heart would tear

At the memory of her deep brown eyes
my pen bleeds on this white sheet
I took a sip of that beautiful smile
I never knew venom would taste so sweet

I fought, Oh how hard I fought
I did not want to fall in love
Didn't want to wear a crown of thorns
After being blessed by the Holy Dove

I tried to outrun love
I tried to run away
I tried to jump the great abyss
But miserably did I fail

This world is spinning around me
Her beautiful face is all I can see,
Her beautiful voice is all I can hear,
And upon my cheek falls one happy tear

I dont know if this will last
Or if ever she'll be mine
I dont even know if I deserve
This Godess, this creature Divine

All I know now is love
And peace enveloping me
Even if she is never mine,
She'll always be a part of me

Happy Birthday

He hates parties
Especially the birthday variety
They make him feel the opposite
Of what they should.
He sees the cake, the happy family
The perfect home,
The smiles, the presents
All reminding him he has none

A bitter world
A bitter, cruel world
Full of venom, full of emptiness
The faces laugh at him mockingly
Their laughter muffled when they see him
Their faces stop when they see him
He doesnt want their pity
He doesnt want their crippled sympathy

Everytime they laugh he thinks
Of a time his world sounded like theirs
Full of laughter, full of fun
Now however, only emptimess, only pain
Memories die, echoes fade and he's dragged back to reality
Looking around, familiar sounds, without the warmth he craves
Strange how laughter looks like crying with no sound
He leaves, hating parties even more

Rage Redux

Blurred images, hazed vision
Searing heat rips open my head
Azure dreams that breed division
All the time, I'm seeing red

Dying swans, twisted wings
Beauty not needed here
I feel like I am seeing things
And sold my soul to fear

Black hot fire, street desire
Rips the bones from my flesh
Like a ird inside a twisted spire
I feel like I'm fighting barbed mesh

Why am I meant to face this alone
Asking the question time and again
For my sins I have to atone
But dont judge me after I repent

From Raindrops to a Rainbow

Sitting at my window, I watch the rain fall
Admiring the beauty, my senses enthralled
Raindrops touch my skin, I try to wipe them in vain
Raindrops taste just like tears without the pain

The rain so gentle, calm, docile
It can never harm - never be vile
Spreading across a lush green field
It falls from its dark water vapourous shield

All of a sudden, the skies further darken
I sit bewildered, my cheeks now starkened
Lightening flashes and thunder shouts loud
Frey unleashing his fury all around

Maybe the rain has a message after all
There is the rise, and then there is the fall
Life and the rain are similar in construction
With every birth hand in hand with destruction

I stoped to muse about the point of it all
Why does one live, and go through it all
The answer came to me, in one bended blow
I looked and lo behold! - I saw A Rainbow

The answers to life and its mystery
Lie not at the end, but in the journey
So finally, my friends, my love, my all
Like the rain we must live, and like it, we must fall

A Change Of Seasons

If you think this is inspired by Dream Theater, well you're right... I was reading the lyrics of the song Change of Seasons by them and man it's amazing. Very few American bands have meaningful lyrics and this is definitely one of them...So here it is:

A Change Of Seasons

I remember a time
My frail, virgin mind
watched the crimson sunrise
Imagined what it might find
Life was filled with wonder
I felt the warm wind blow
I must explore the boundaries
Transcend the depth of winter's snow
Innocence caressing me
I never felt so young before
There was so much life in me
Still I longed to search for more
But those days are gone now
Changed like a leaf on a tree
Blown away forever
into the cool autumn breeze
The snow has now fallen
and my sun's not so bright
I struggle to hold on
with the last of my might
In my den of inequity
viciousness and subtlety
struggle to ease the pain
struggle to find the sane
Ignorance surrounding me
I've never been so filled with fear
All my life's been drained from me
The end is drawing near....

'Carpe diem, seize the day'

I'll always remember
The chill of November
The news of the fall
The sounds in the hall
The clock on the wall ticking away
'Seize the Day'
I heard him say
Life will not always be this way
Look around
Hear the sounds
Cherish your life while you're still around

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying."

We can learn from the past
But those days are gone
We can hope for the future
But there may not be one
The words stuck in my mind
alive from what I've learned
I have to seize the day
To home I returned
Preparing for her flight
I held with all my might
Fearing my deepest fright
She walked into the night
She turned for one last look
She looked me in the eye
I said, 'I Love You...Good-bye'

"It's the most awful thing you'll
ever hear."
"If you're lying to me..."
"Oh, you dearly love her."
"...just have to leave... all our lives."
"Seize the day!"
"Something happened.
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."
"She was killed."

So far or so it seems
All is lost with nothing fulfilled
Off the pages and a T.V. screen
Another world where nothing's true
Tripping through the life fantastic
Lose a step and never get up
Left alone with a cold blank stare
I feel like giving up
I was blinded by a paradise
Utopia high in the sky
A dream that only drowned me
Deep in sorrow, wondering why
Oh come let us adore him
Abuse and then ignore him
No matter what, don't let him be
Let's feed upon his misery
Then string him up for all the world to see
I'm sick of all you hypocrites
holding me at bay
And I don't need your sympathy
to get me through the day
Seasons change and so can I
Hold on Boy, No time to cry
Untie these strings, I'm climbing down
I won't let them push me away
Oh come let us adore him
Abuse and then ignore him
No matter what, don't let him be
Let's feed upon his misery
Now it's time for them to deal with me

I'm much wiser now
A lifetime of memories
run through my head
They taught me how
for better or worse, alive or dead
I realize there's no turning back
Life goes on the offbeaten track

I sit down with my son
Set to see the Crimson Sunset
(Gather ye rosebuds while ye may)
Many years have come and gone
I've lived my life, but now must move on
(Gather ye rosebuds while ye may)
He is my only one
Now that my time has come
Now that my life is done
We look into the sun
'Seize the day and don't you cry,
Now it's time to say good-bye
Even though I'll be gone,
I will live on, live on.'


What a song!!!!! Kudos to Mike Portnoy. he's the drummer of the band and he wrote the lyrics for the song....

Pain

Here I stand all alone
Have my mind turned to stone
Have my heart filled up with ice
To avoid Its breaking twice

Thanks to you, my dear old friend
But you can't help. This is the end
Of a tale that wasn't right
I won't have no sleep tonight

It's alright, we'll stay friends
Trusting In my confidence
And Iets say it's just alright
You wont sleep alone tonight

With my heart, with my soul
Some guys cry you bought and sold
They've been strong, young and bold
And they say, play this song again

In my heart, in my soul
I really hate to pay this toll
Should be strong, young and bold
But the only thing I feel is pain

Rage

I've given everything
With nothing in return
I'm filled with images
That play on every word
No-one to tell me
There's a cloud before my eyes
Not only broken,
I don't know the reason why

This endless sea of tears
The feeling that I'll drown
I'd try to catch them
But they're sure to touch the ground
My world of emptiness
A child without a toy
Forgiving anything
Restore me to my joy


I really dunno where that one came from...i'm just angry i guess.. hehe

Rudra and the Tandava

Lord Shiva has this knack of inspiring awe in most people and thats what He does to me every time I think of Him. He with his matted locks, blazing third eye and fierce temper reminds me that good too has power.In Indian mythology,Lord Shiva is considered as the supreme lord of dance. This divine art form is performed by Lord Shiva & his wife Goddess Parvathi. The Dance performd by Lord Shiva is known as Tandava, which depicts his violent nature as the distructor of the universe. The tandava performed with joy is called Ananda Tandava and performed in violent mood is called Rudra Tandava. There are 7 types of Tandava. Namely Ananda Tandava, Tripura Tandava, Sandhya Tandava, Samara Tandava, Kaali tandava, Uma Tandava and Gauri Tandava. There are few people who believa that there are 16 types of Tandava. Tandava has vigourous, brisk movements.The dance performed by Goddess Parvathi is known as Lasya, in which the movements are gentle, graceful and sometimes erotic also. Some scholars call Lasya as the feminine version of Tandava. Lasya has 2 kinds. Jarita Lasya and Yauvaka Lasya.

My main focus this time is on the Rudra Tandava. To me, the Rudra Tandava is the absolute embodiment of love. The dance is performed by Rudra carrying in his arms his lifeless wife Sati. The Rudra Tandava is the dance of destruction. It was performed then by the dread Lord, in my opinion, as a statement as if to say that a world not having his wife in it does not deserve to exist. That is love. To be precise, that is the channeling of anger into love. This, I must confess, is my ultimate goal in life - to infuse anger into everyday emotion and, at the same time, control it. It might sound weird to most people, but to those who understand what I'm trying to say, you should be feeling a warm glow inside you right about now.

Shiva is Kala, 'The Black One' 'Time'; but he is also Maha Kala, 'Great Time', 'Eternity'. As Nataraja, King of Dancers, his gestures, wild and full of grace, precipitate the cosmic illusion; his flying arms and legs and the swaying of his torso produce – indeed, they are – the continuous creation-destruction of the universe, death exactly balancing birth, annihilation the end of every coming-forth. The choreography is the whirligig of time. History and its ruins, the explosion of suns, are flashes from the tireless swinging sequence of the gestures. In the medieval bronze figurines, not merely a single phase or movement, but cyclic rhythm, flowing on and non in the unstayable, irreversible round of the Mahayugas, or Great Eons, is marked by the beating and stamping of the Master's heel. But the face remains, meanwhile, in sovereign calm. Shiva is the personification of the Absolute, particularly in its dissolution of the universe. He is the embodiment of Super-Death. He is called Yamantaka – 'The Ender of the Tamer' , He who conquers and exterminates Yama the God of Death, the Tamer. Shiva is Maha-Kala, Great Time, Eternity, the swallower of Time, swallower of Ages and cycles of ages. Shiva is apparently, thus, two opposite things, archetypal ascetic, and archetypal dancer. On one hand , he is Total Tranquility – inward calm absorbed in itself, absorbed in the void of the Absolute, where all distintions merge and dissolve, and all tensions are at rest. But on the other hand, he is Total Activity – life's energy, frantic, aimless, and playful and sometimes, ANGRY as hell.

I've always been fascinated by the enigma that is Shiva. Though He is a God, He is probably the most human god of them all. He is the outcast one, the black sheep, sometimes called the God of Marijuana. Ridiculed by others for the majority of His existence, the Supreme Yogi takes it in His stride and continues His dance - the dance of creation; the dance of destruction - for creation and destruction are inseperable entities. And during the course of His dance He also helps those who come to Him requesting for help. Case in point is the story behind His name Neelakantha. Anyone who has ever been hurt by anyone else can identify with the Cosmic Dancer. His dance is testimony to his spirit - unyielding, resilient, arrogant, yet benevolent. I would like to end this with a simple incantation praising the name of He Who Walks Amongst Ashes. Om Namah Shivayah. May His spirit be with you.

The Healing

He stood riveted, shocked and still
With the wind whipping behind him.
The biting stench of regret and hate
The only company beside him.

Regret looked at him laughingly
While hate stood contra benign.
And they both mocked and prodded him
In a cruel pantomime.

His eyes were faint, he began to ebb;
His strength was failing him.
His heart could not bear the pain
His company was causing him.

Then out of nowhere he saw
From the corner of his eye,
She was walking slowly toward him
And he heaved a relieved sigh.

She had come! She had come at last,
To heal and set him free.
She was the one who could pull him away
From all the cosmic debris.

They fused and became as one,
And his company was her alone.
All the pain and hate and regret
Became as good as unknown.

He loved her and she loved him back;
To each other alone they cleaved.
From now on and forever more
He was completely healed.

Rambling while following the Alchemist

I read The Alchemist today - for probably the 100th time. its a brilliant book. while reading that book, i found myself. most people i know who've read the book say that its too dry for their liking. well, different strokes for different folks. Paulo Coelho came up with a winner - a magical fable about following your dream - and i am here to encourage people to do exactly that.

to have a dream is a great thing. dreams are the very stuff we are made of. the dreams we have reflect our deepest longings and desires. they create in us the will to succeed. the trick is to not let your dream turn into a nighmare. for that to happen, well, we have to use our minds.

everyday life is evidence of the power of the human mind. human beings, by virtue of being human beings, are endowed with a powerful thing called the mind. most people mistake displays of this power for coincidence. when you think of someone and the person calls, its not just by chance that he/she called. its because we are all connected at a very subconscious level. to quote john travolta in phenomenon, "we're all made of the same stuff - energy". and its from that energy that our minds derive their power.

everything we want in life happens twice, or atleast it should. the first time is in our minds, when we actually visualise what the actual result of our wants would be, and the second time is in reality. the difference between wanting something and actually achieving that want is purely desire. you just have to want it so damn bad that it consumes your very being. it could be anything - from a new bike, to admission at IIM-A, to whatever else. but there lies the problem.


with the dream comes the fear of failure. fear of people laughing at us when we fail. the problem is with the fact that most people are too scared to dream and when they cross that hurdle, their demon becomes doubt. faith is among the many things that binds us. it gives us reason to be. most people dream, and then say, "thats never gonna happen". its that kind of thought pattern that causes failure. when you do anything, you must believe in what it is that you are doing. the entire world might be against you, but if YOU believe, then its absolutely fine.

we live in a cynical, hypocritical world. that is a sad, but true fact of life. and try as you might, you can never please the masses. the best we can do is to please ourselves, and the select few who we know will stand by us. so dream, follow your dream, and have a ball achieving your dream. May the force be with you all........

Startup

Hello all... this is my first blog entry ever, so kindly forgive anything which could be deemed unfit.... Since i fancy myself as a bit of a poet, i would like to begin my blogging journey with a poem i wrote a long time ago, for a friend of mine.....so here goes nothing....

Her Dilemma

All her fears slowly came
Creeping up behind her.
She was scared that they would all
Rush up on her and find her.

She lived in the comfortable
Warmth of her abstract.
She did not want him to invade
Her heart's forbidden tract.

Her dilemma was not at all
About what she had to do.
Her dilemma was all about
What she was not to do.

She denied her true feelings
Thinking them to be untrue.
Her mind and her emotions
Swirled like some strange brew.

Her silence he accepted,
But it was what he could not bear.
He thought she felt the same way,
His heart her stillness did tear.

What could have been was not
And what should not have been was.
The result of her dilemma was that
She knew what she had lost.

so there... that was Her Dilemma. its a bit juvenile, but hey...its my first time...and it was written a long time ago...Now, some credit is to be given where it is due....

Meghna, thanks for everything....u know what u did... for those who dont know meghna, pay no attention...its better u don't...