Kaberi Dutta Chatterjee's Blog: Life and Laughter, page 3

প্রবাসিনীর চিঠি: অনেক হয়েছে, এবার চললাম টরন্টো থেকে কলকাতা, ট্রেনে করে

November 25, 2018 13:26 IST

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রেল পথে কী ভাবে কানাডা থেকে কলকাতা আসা যায়? (মানচিত্র- লেখক)

 

১৬.৮ X ৭ ইঞ্চি সীটের মাপ। আর আমার কোমরের বেড় সাড়ে ৪৪ ইঞ্চি । “দুইয়ে মিশ খাবে কি করে?”

ব্রিটিশ এয়ারওয়েজে চড়ে সিটের দিকে তাকিয়েই আমার গব্বর সিং-এর সেই কথাটা মনে পড়ল, “উও সর্‌, ইয়ে পেয়র্‌…” এবার ‘সর্‌’ আর ‘পেয়র্‌’ ফিট্‌ করনোতেই চলল পরবর্তী ২৭ ঘন্টা।

নিশ্চই এঁটে যাবো, এই ভেবে নিজেকে সিটে গুঁজে দিলাম। বেল্ট বেঁধে বিমান ওড়ার পর উঠতে গিয়েই বুঝতে পারলাম কী খপ্পরেই না পড়েছি।  পাশের ভদ্রলোকের সাহায্য নিতে হল সিট থেকে বেরোতে। তারপর থেকে অনেকটা রাস্তাই আমি দাঁড়িয়ে, যেনো ভিড় বাস। সিট নেই। যেনো কারোর জন্যও অপেক্ষা করছি এরকম ভাব। কিছুক্ষণ বাদে বাথরুমের সামনে এগিয়ে গেলাম, যেনো কেউ বেরোলেই আমি যাবো। খানিক যোগাসনও করে নিলাম। ভাবতে লাগলাম, এরকম কি কোনো সূচনা আমার চোখ এড়িয়ে গেছে যেখানে লেখা ছিল, “ব্রিটিশ এয়ারওয়েজ চড়তে গেলে কোমরের মাপ এতো ইঞ্চি হওয়া উচিত।” অথবা, “ঠ্যাঙের দৈর্ঘ্য এতো ইঞ্চি হওয়া উচিত”, কেননা আমার পিছনের লম্বা ভদ্রলোক তার পা’দুটোকে কোথায় রাখবেন বুঝতেই পারছিলেননা। একবার আইলের দিকে ছড়িয়ে দিলেন, একবার উঠে দাঁড়ালেন, একবার হাঁটু গুঁজে পিছনের দিকে পা মোড়ার চেষ্টা করলেন, সে এক কাতর দৃশ্য।

আমি তো একবার ব্যাগটা ফেলে দিয়ে, “এই যাঃ!” বলে মাটিতে হামা দিয়ে থ্যাপন গেড়ে বসে পড়লাম জিনিসপত্র গোছানোর ছুতো করে। অন্তত, কিছুক্ষণ পা ছড়িয়ে বসা গেল।

কিন্তু আর কতক্ষন ধোঁকা দেওয়া যায়? পরের ২৫ ঘন্টা ওই খোঁয়াড়েই নিজেকে বাঁধতে হল। একেই বলে “ইকনোমি ক্লাসের সিট”। দাম প্রায় ৭৫,০০০-৮০,০০০ টাকা। কলকাতায় সাইকেল রিক্সার সিট এর থেকে অনেক বড়। অনেক সম্মান সেখানে। মাত্র ২০ টাকায়।

অসম্মানিত, অপমানিত, মায় হালালের মুর্গির মতোন ঝুড়িতে বাঁধা এক পাল মানুষকে “অত্যন্ত যত্ন-সহকারে” উড়িয়ে নিয়ে এলো ব্রিটিশ এয়ারওয়েজ। এত “যত্ন”, যে বেল টিপে তেনাদের ডেকে জল চাইলেও তেনারা বিরক্ত। ব্রিটিশদের  আজকাল আমি আর আন্তর্জাতিক অপরাধী হিসেবে দেখিনা। তারা অজ্ঞ, নিজেদের ইতিহাস নিজেরাই জানেনা। তাদের পিতামহ-প্রপিতামহরা যে কত দেশে কত খুন করেছে, কত অত্যাচার করেছে, তা তেনারা কিছুই জানেনা। তাই এখনকার আক্ষরিক-অর্থে কানে কুলুপ দেওয়া প্রজন্মকে দোষ দেওয়াটাই বেকার। এখনকার ব্রিটিশদের আমি বলি ‘পেট্‌ পীভ্‌স্‌”। গাঁয়ে-মানেনা-আপনি-মোড়ল ভাব এখনো। চলায়, ফেরায় ধরণী কাঁপে, সারা পৃথিবীর মানুষের প্রতি অবজ্ঞা। আগেকার দিনের রাস্তার বাংলা-মিডিয়ামে পড়া ছেলেরা যে চোখে পাড়ার ইংরেজি-মিডিয়ামের মেয়েদের দেখতো, আমি আজকাল সেরকম চোখে ওদের দেখি।

সেইজন্য যেই অতলান্তিক পেরিয়ে আমার অত্যন্ত “পেট্‌ পীভ্‌” শহর লন্ডনে নামলাম, অমনি ঠিক করে ফেললাম পরের বার কলকাতায় আসবো ট্রেনে করে।

আমার সঙ্গে একমত হবে জানি অনেকেই, যাদের ধম্ম-কম্ম বছরে একবার কলকাতা যাওয়া। তাঁরা হাসবেন না। বলবেন না “পাগলের প্রলাপ”। তাঁরা বুঝবেন যে আমি মজা করছি না।

সত্যি যাওয়া যায় ট্রেনে করে ! মাত্র ১৬-১৭ দিন লাগে, আর খরচা লাগে আনুমানিক $১৫০০।

কানাডা-কলকাতা ভ্রমণের জন্য লেখক কল্পিত দ্বিতীয় রেলপথ

তিনটে পথ আছে। একটা লন্ডন থেকে প্যারিস হয়ে ইউরেলে ইস্তানবুল (ROUTE 1)। লন্ডন থেকে প্যারিস যেতে লাগবে দু থেকে আড়াই ঘন্টা। টিকিট, ৩৩ পাউন্ড। সেখান থেকে ইস্তানবুল এক্সপ্রেসে প্রথমে জুরিখ, ৫ ঘন্টা মতন, ২০০ পাউন্ড। জুরিখ থেকে জাগ্রেব (ক্রোশিয়া, দ্বিতীয় দিন) রাতের ট্রেন, বেশ ভালো ফার্স্ট ক্লাস কুপ। আগের থেকে কোন দেশে কিরকম তাপমাত্রা জেনে গেলে ভালো হয়। আর তা ছাড়া, তল্পিতল্পা হালকা নেওয়াটা বুদ্ধিমানের কাজ।

সকালে পৌঁছয় জাগ্রেব। জাগ্রেব থেকে বেল্গ্রেড কনেক্টিং ট্রেন। বেল্গ্রেডে সন্ধ্যায় পৌঁছয় ট্রেনটা।

হোটেল মোস্কভা-তে কফি খেয়ে জেল্টুরিস্ট স্টেশনে নৈশভোজ করে সোফিয়া, বুলগারিয়ার উদ্দেশে রাতের ট্রেন (তৃতীয় দিন) এই ট্রেনটার কুপগুলো একটু ছোট, তবে ব্রিটিশ এয়ারওয়েজের ইকনমি ক্লাসের কথা ভেবে নিলেই নিমেষে হাত-পা মেলে শুয়ে পড়বেন। বাইরে আঁধার। ছুটে চলেছে ট্রেন অদেখা প্রান্তর দিয়ে।

ভোরে সোফিয়ায় অবতরণ। নৈসর্গিক দৃশ্য !

চতুর্থ দিন! বুলগেরিয়া । সোফিয়ার মতন সুন্দর নামের সুন্দর শহরে দিনটা কাটিয়ে রাতের ট্রেনে বলকান এক্সপ্রেসে করে ভোরে ইস্তানবুল, টার্কি।  এটা একটা অভূতপূর্ব অভিজ্ঞতা।

এবার একটু ধৈর্য্য়ের খেলা, কেননা ইস্তানবুল থেকে ইরানের তেহরান তিন দিন।  আর তেহরান থেকে কোনো ট্রেন নেই পাকিস্তান হয়ে ভারতে পৌঁছনোর । আগে নাকি ছিল। তারপর বোমা-টোমা পড়াতে সেটা বন্ধ হয়ে গেছে। একটা গাড়ির রাস্তা আছে করাচি অবধি ২৫০০ কিলোমিটারের মতন, মাক্রাল কোস্টাল হাইওয়ে। সেটা ধরে করাচি পৌঁছে যেতে পারলে, তো ব্যাস! বাড়ি! আবার কী? একটু পাকিস্তানের সাথে ভিসা নিয়ে বচসা হতে পারে, যেমন হয় আর কি। সেগুলো আগের থেকে মিটিয়ে নিয়ে যাওয়াই ভালো।

এরপর করাচি থেকে লাহোর, লাহোর থেকে দিল্লি “সমঝোতা এক্সপ্রেসে”। দিল্লি পৌঁছে অবশ্য কলকাতা যাওয়ার ট্রেনে ১৫-১৬ ঘন্টা বিলম্ব হতেই পারে। কিন্তু, তাতে কি? ১২টা দেশ পেরিয়ে এলেন, ১২টা দেশের বিভিন্ন রূপ, ভিন্ন মানুষ, ভিন্ন সংস্কৃতি, প্রাদেশ, আবহাওয়া, সন্ত্রাসবাদীদের হামলার আতঙ্ক, সব কিছু জীবন খাতার প্রতি পাতায় লেখা হল। আকাশ দিয়ে উড়ে এলে এই মজাটা পাওয়া যেতো? এতো কিছু দেখতে দেখতে হাত-পা ছড়িয়ে স্বাধীন ভাবে বেড়ানো যেতো? স্বাধীন ভাবে চলা ফেরা করতে পারা। একটু হাঁটতে পারা। যাদের প্লেনে ওড়ার ফোবিয়া আছে, তাদের পক্ষে তো এর থেকে সুখবর আর কিছুই নেই। আরো একটা সুখবর দি, ক্যানেডিয়ান বা আমেরিক্যান পাসপোর্ট যাদের আছে, তাদের ইউরোপের কোন দেশের জন্যই ভিসা লাগবেনা।

আর একটা জব্বর পথ আছে লন্ডন থেকে বার্লিন হয়ে ইউরোস্টারে করে মস্কো, (ROUTE 2)। ১ দিন ১৬ ঘন্টা। মাত্র ৩০০০ রুবেল, বা ৬০ ক্যানাডিয়ান ডলার। তারপর মস্কো থেকে ট্রান্স-মঙ্গোলিয়ান রেলে উলান উডে, উলানবাটোর হয়ে, বিজিং। সেটার সময়  সাত দিন ধরে নিন। বিজিং থেকে ৪০ ঘন্টা লাগে লাসা। লাসা থেকে ৭ ঘন্টা বাসে পৌছনো যায় ইয়াদং জিয়ান, ভুটানে। ব্যাস! ভুটান থেকে শিলিগুড়ি জংশন, শিলিগুড়ি থেকে কলকাতা!!! আর পুজো!

ইউরেকা! শুধু অতলান্তিক পেরোতে হবে প্লেনে, তারপর আর দেখে কে!

অবশ্য, যারা অতলান্টিকও প্লেনে করে পেরোতে চান না, তাঁদের জন্যও আর একটা রাস্তা আছে। (IMPOSSIBLE ROUTE)। তবে সে রাস্তা দিয়ে পেঙ্গুইনও যেতে ভয় পায়। সেটা হল বেরিং স্ট্রেট দিয়ে।

ট্রেনে কানাডা-কলকাতা (লেখক প্রস্তাবিত অসম্ভব যাত্রাপথ)

বেরিং স্ট্রেট কোথায়? ম্যাপ দেখো। বেরিং স্ট্রেট হল রাশিয়া আর আমেরিকার মধ্যে সেইটুকুন ফাঁক, যেখানে হাত মিলতে গিয়েও মেলেনা। কিন্তু মিলতো। এক সময় মিলতো। আইস এজের সময় মিলতো। সেইজন্যই তো ১৪০০০ বছর আগে সাইবেরিয়া থেকে বেরিং ল্যান্ড ব্রিজ বা বেরিঙ্গিয়া দিয়ে আমেরিকায় হেঁটে হেঁটে এসেছিল হাজার হাজার মানুষ। এখন ওইখানে বরফ গলে গিয়ে ৫৫ কিলোমিটার ফাঁক। এবং সেই ফাঁক দিয়ে অনেক বিতর্কই গলে যাচ্ছে। যাক্‌গে, সেসব কথা আর একদিন হবে।

কিন্তু সেখানে কোনো রাস্তা নেই। শুধু বরফের চাঙড়। চরম গরমেও তাপমাত্রা ১১ ডিগ্রি সেলসিয়াসের বেশি ওঠেনা । আর শীতকালে মাইনাস ১০০ ডিগ্রি অবধি নেমে যায়। কারো পক্ষে জীবিত থাকা সম্ভব নয় সেই সময়ে।

তাই বলে অতো ভয় পেলে চলবে নাকি? তাহলে দম আটকে যাও বরং প্লেনে চেপে ২৭ ঘন্টা ধরে!

ভিয়া রেল করে টরন্টো থেকে ভ্যাঙ্কুভার চলে যাও, তারপর বাস, নৌকো নিয়ে অ্যাঙ্কোরেজ, আলাস্কায় পৌঁছে যেতে হবে। অ্যাঙ্কোরেজ থেকে ওয়েলস যেতে হবে বাসে। সেখান থেকে রাশিয়ার ভিসা বাগিয়ে, একটা ছোট্ট ফ্লাইটে টুক করে লাভ্রেন্টিয়া বা চুকটকায় পৌঁছতে পারা যায় ঠিকই, তবে সেখান থেকে বিজিং যেতে মা দুগ্‌গাই ভরসা কেনোনা, সেখান থেকে গাড়ি চলার পথ পর্যন্ত নেই। কিছু উট আছে… আর ছাগল।

আমার মনে হয় রাশিয়ার ভিসা বাগাতে পারলে ট্রান্স-সাইবেরিয়ান রেলে আর ট্রান্স-মঙ্গোলিয়ান রেলে চেপে পুজোয় কলকাতা যাওয়াটা একটা বিস্ময়কর, চাঞ্চল্যকর এবং স্মরণীয় ঘটনা শুধু হবেনা, একটা নতুন ধরনের স্বাধীনতা আন্দোলন হবে। মুর্গি-চালানকারী বিমান পরিবহণব্যবস্থার বিরুদ্ধে আন্দোলন।  রুট, লন্ডন-মস্কো-ঊলানবাটোর-বেজিং-লাসা-ভুটান-শিলিগুড়ি-কলকাতা। সময়ঃ ১৬-১৭ দিন। ইতিহাস তোমাকে মনে রাখবে। আমি তো তাই যাব ঠিক করেছি।

শেষে সব শুনে আমার কর্তা জিগ্যেস করলেন, “আচ্ছা বেশ। তাহলে ফিরে আসার সময় তোমাকে কি এয়ারপোর্টে তুলতে যাবো না স্টেশনে?”

Web Title: Letter from canada kaberi dutta chatterjee

Our gods are actually those future humans

Both the science-fiction films, Christpher Nolam’s, Interstellar (2014) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) had quite a few subtle references to God. One may choose to believe that, or not. Several times in Interstellar the characters have referred to someone called “they”. Even after watching the film several times myself, I was not sure what Nolan meant by the term “they”.

In Interstellar, Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), physically tries contact “them” (not sure if it was by feel or touch) while the astronauts were riding through the wormhole. Later in the movie Coop mentions to TARS and Murph that it was “we” who created this wormhole in the first place.  When Coop and TARS enter the black hole and are inside, going through time as infinite lines, TARS also mentions about “them” creating the 4D tesseract[1] to help Coop comprehend or understand.

Was that reference to an alien civilization or future human beings, or God? That is left wide open for every person to interpret on their own.

Given the abstract explanation here, being a skeptic, I could conclude that it is either a Good Samaritan alien or a futuristic human being who has the power to alter or communicate with our past (as Coop does with Murph at their house, in this case) and potentially our future, given time becomes a dimension that can be traversed back and forth inside the blackhole. But then again, the question arises, who put these there in the first case? Isn’t feature of ‘futuristic human being’ mentioned above attributed to a character of God? It is not clear. As skeptics would often question, if God created the Universe, and if everything has a creator, who created God?

You might say Nolan specifies it is the future humans. But then, who set the wormholes for present humans to travel through them to become future humans? It is an egg-and-chicken situation. I would be more relaxed if I knew God had put in the wormhole and tesseract for benefit of mankind.

2001: A Space Odyssey 2001 went to elaborate lengths to explain the physics of space travel. The director, Stanley Kubrick, was determined to make what he called the “first science fiction film that isn’t considered trash”.

In an interview in 2013 Kubrick explains the allegory of God in the film: “The God concept is at the heart of this film. It’s unavoidable that it would be, once you believe that the universe is seething with advanced forms of intelligent life.

“Just think about it for a moment. There are a hundred billion stars in the galaxy and a hundred billion galaxies in the visible universe. Each star is a sun, like our own, probably with planets around them. The evolution of life, it is widely believed, comes as an inevitable consequence of a certain amount of time on a planet in a stable orbit which is not too hot or too cold. First comes chemical evolution — chance rearrangements of basic matter, then biological evolution.

“Think of the kind of life that may have evolved on those planets over the millennia, and think, too, what relatively giant technological strides man has made on Earth in the six thousand years of his recorded civilization — a period that is less than a single grain of sand in the cosmic hourglass.

“At a time when man’s distant evolutionary ancestors were just crawling out of the primordial ooze, there must have been civilizations in the universe sending out their starships to explore the farthest reaches of the cosmos and conquering all the secrets of nature. Such cosmic intelligences, growing in knowledge over the eons, would be as far removed from man as we are from the ants.

“They could be in instantaneous telepathic communication throughout the universe; they might have achieved total mastery over matter so that they can telekinetically transport themselves instantly across billions of light years of space; in their ultimate form they might shed the corporeal shell entirely and exist as a disembodied immortal consciousness throughout the universe.”

His words and the allegory of Interstellar in combination echo the entire reason for this book: that future humans would, in no way, be any less than God.

Like in his book Homo deus, (Human god) which gives a glimpse of the dreams and nightmares that will shape the 21st century, Professor Yuval Noah Harari talks about now that humans are advancing into a dreamlike technological manifold, what will happen to democracy when Google and Facebook come to know our likes and our political preferences better than we know them ourselves? What will happen to the welfare state when computers push humans out of the job market and create a massive new “useless class”? How might Islam handle genetic engineering? Will Silicon Valley end up producing new religions and gods, rather than just novel gadgets? Harari talks about a world where humans life will effortlessly span over 150 years. By 2100 humans may be able to overcome death with nanotechnology, genetic engineering and regenerative medicines.

According to the book, anyone possessing a healthy bank account and a healthy body may cheat death a decade at a time. “Every 10 years you can march into a clinic and get a makeover treatment that will not only cure your illnesses, but will also regenerate decaying tissues, and upgrade hands, eyes and brains. Before the next treatment is due, doctors would have invented a plethora of new medicines, upgrades and gadgets.”

Me being an anti-Royalty, I look at the generations of monarchy in UK cheating death, and living up to/over a 100 years, and I am thinking, we are probably seeing such immortals around us already!

Why just medicines, Baba Ramdev, the yoga guru of India has revived the 5000-year-old method of keeping oneself healthy only with yoga and pranayama[2].  He says, “If, with daily yoga and pranayama, you are pumping enough oxygen into your lungs, heart, cells and brain; exercising the inner organs regularly; with yoga, you are keeping every muscle, every tissue, ligament, cartilage healthy and operating, how will you die?” 

Like the mystic, Sadhguru says, “This is the best era for humans to be living in.” According to Prof Harari, in Homo deus, humans are no longer in a state where they can die of starvation. Come hail or high storm or any Earthquake or tsunami, with the universal survival kits reaching to every corner of the globe, there is a very little probability that humans will die of starvation.

Actually, more and more humans will die of over-eating, he says.  Humans have conquered most diseases that were slapped upon humanity throughout history. And it will… is… conquering Covid too.

Will that turn humans more and more like God? With our clear, yet, struggling path towards attaining immortality through the use of replacement organs, cybernetics, gene manipulation, computerized brain emulation, or a combination of all these and holistic, alternative and natural means of extending life; very definite and bold strides towards inter-planetary homes; a theoretical, yet plausible phenomenon of time-travel; and a gamut of technological advancements we are seeing every day, man can very surely call himself the future people of the universe.

Of course, God with a capital ‘G’ is way beyond that! We are only talking small steps to cheat death. We are trying to get away from the scythe of Grim Reaper and the mace of Yamaraja[3].

But what about the other life-threatening actions that are already killing humans in millions? Already endangering the life on planet Earth? In one hand, we are trying to achieve immortality, on the other, we are destroying the only home we have, or can have in a few hundred years to come.

I understand that Nasa and SpaceX are making great headways to Mars. Scientists are even thinking of terraforming Venus, by altering its atmosphere, and are on their way to making the Moon our refueling base. But how about altering our own atmosphere to reduce global warming? How about stopping the waste of plastic, which is engulfing marine life and choking Earth? How about educating those militants and stopping the vicious wars? How about eliminating religions completely from humanity that sets the ball of hatred rolling in the first place?

“Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You, you may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you will join us

And the world will be as one

~John Lennon

The above lyrics of the John Lennon song is very futuristic, and humans can only attempt to reach even the 5th dimension if they abandon religions and countries altogether. We know that there are 11 dimensions, and only beyond that is the abode of God. We also know about the Kardashev’s scale, and that humanity has only reached a big ZERO in that scale so far. Hence, only after we achieve near-immortality, only after we manage to harness the power of more than one planet, only after we start living in complete peace and only after we have conquered all viruses and tamed death, can we even think of achieving a Godly status.

So, is the “they” that Dr Brad in Interstellar was referring to, future humans, and not God? (I think the overuse of Zimmerman’s organ tricked our minds into believing that “they’ was being referred to as Gods.) Who have already advanced into the other dimensions that they could create a tesseract[4] in the space to save present humanity?

So, if Cooper saved humans from the 5th dimension, opened the wormhole and engineered the whole sequence of events, guided his past self and his daughter on how to save humanity, there is a compelling question, how did future Cooper exist in the first place? You cannot exist if you weren’t there in the past, correct? Kind of shown fittingly in the ending of the 1985 film, Back to the Future.

Which is to say, you can’t travel back in time and engineer your own salvation. Don’t you first have to be saved, so that you will exist in the future to travel back in time? This isn’t a “chicken or the egg” question as much it is a “chicken travels back in time and lays egg that hatches and becomes that chicken” question, and that’s kind of eerie. 

Very well shown in the movie, Predestined. A must watch.

But even if we assume that future Cooper saved past Cooper with the help of present Cooper; that future humans, aka God, are saving us each day, it is possible that they are creating our destiny exactly the way they have been made. When we chose path ‘Y’ over path ‘X’, in taking a major decision in life, with the understanding of the science of future humans, we can safely conclude that that path was guided to be taken by our future self, who has already taken that path.

In other words, when our parents and astrologers told us that our destiny is pre-determined, they weren’t fibbing. This means that we have lived and lived over and over again to make the decisions that has already been made by our future selves. It makes sense of the word ‘reincarnation’. Like if you’ve not achieved something in this life, you will come back in next life, and then your future self will direct you to achieve that.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. ~ John Lennon. 

But what if we are the future humans, can we time travel into our past selves and change our decisions? No. Not yet. For that we have to invent time-travel first.

This is getting my head and yours too, reeling, I’m sure. But look at it this way, when we talk about another ‘you’ existing in a parallel dimension, who may have taken the path ‘X’ instead, or in another dimension, the path ‘Z’, and their respective future selves were guiding them in taking that path, the whole thing falls into a pattern and becomes a plausible ‘fiction’. I cannot write ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ here, as these are completely my rationalization of the existing jibber-jabber. I’ll just stick to my astrologer for the time.

[1] In geometry, the tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of eight cubical cells. The tesseract is one of the six convex regular 4-polytopes.

[2] Prāṇāyāma is the practice of breath control in yoga. It is a distinct breathing exercise, usually practiced after asanas, It consists mainly of three techniques:pūrak (inhale), rechak (exhale), kumbhak. It also consists of synchronizing the breath with movements between asanas. This is extensively discussed in texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and later in Hatha yoga texts.

[3] In Hinduism, Yama or Yamaraja is a Rigvedic deity. He is the lord of death and justice, responsible for the dispensation of law and punishment of sinners in his abode, Yamaloka.

[4] The Tesseract makes its onscreen debut in Captain America: The First Avenger and then plays the role of MacGuffin over and over again in various Marvel films. In Interstellar, it is where Coop and TARS enter after passing through the event horizon (the boundary at which even light cannot escape) of the gargantuan black hole.

…

In other words, when our parents and astrologers told us that our destiny is pre-determined, they weren’t fibbing. This means that we have lived and lived over and over again to make the decisions that has already been made by our future selves. It makes sense of the word ‘reincarnation’. Like if you’ve not achieved something in this life, you will come back in next life, and then your future self will direct you to achieve that.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. ~ John Lennon. 

But what if we are the future humans, can we time travel into our past selves and change our decisions? No. Not yet. For that we have to invent time-travel first.

This is getting my head and yours too, reeling, I’m sure. But look at it this way, when we talk about another ‘you’ existing in a parallel dimension, who may have taken the path ‘X’ instead, or in another dimension, the path ‘Z’, and their respective future selves were guiding them in taking that path, the whole thing falls into a pattern and becomes a plausible ‘fiction’. I cannot write ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ here, as these are completely my rationalization of the existing jibber-jabber. I’ll just stick to my astrologer for the time

An extract from my 6th book: WtF I Found God

In India: WtF I Found God

Please feel free to comment your thoughts below.

What did Christopher Nolan mean by “they” in Interstellar?

Both the science-fiction films, Christpher Nolam’s, Interstellar (2014) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) had quite a few subtle references to God. One may choose to believe that, or not. Several times in Interstellar the characters have referred to someone called “they”. Even after watching the film several times myself, I was not sure what Nolan meant by the term “they”.

In Interstellar, Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), physically tries contact “them” (not sure if it was by feel or touch) while the astronauts were riding through the wormhole. Later in the movie Coop mentions to TARS and Murph that it was “we” who created this wormhole in the first place.  When Coop and TARS enter the black hole and are inside, going through time as infinite lines, TARS also mentions about “them” creating the 4D tesseract[1] to help Coop comprehend or understand.

Was that reference to an alien civilization or future human beings, or God? That is left wide open for every person to interpret on their own.

Given the abstract explanation here, being a skeptic, I could conclude that it is either a Good Samaritan alien or a futuristic human being who has the power to alter or communicate with our past (as Coop does with Murph at their house, in this case) and potentially our future, given time becomes a dimension that can be traversed back and forth inside the blackhole. But then again, the question arises, who put these there in the first case? Isn’t feature of ‘futuristic human being’ mentioned above attributed to a character of God? It is not clear. As skeptics would often question, if God created the Universe, and if everything has a creator, who created God?

You might say Nolan specifies it is the future humans. But then, who set the wormholes for present humans to travel through them to become future humans? It is an egg-and-chicken situation. I would be more relaxed if I knew God had put in the wormhole and tesseract for benefit of mankind.

2001: A Space Odyssey 2001 went to elaborate lengths to explain the physics of space travel. The director, Stanley Kubrick, was determined to make what he called the “first science fiction film that isn’t considered trash”.

In an interview in 2013 Kubrick explains the allegory of God in the film: “The God concept is at the heart of this film. It’s unavoidable that it would be, once you believe that the universe is seething with advanced forms of intelligent life.

“Just think about it for a moment. There are a hundred billion stars in the galaxy and a hundred billion galaxies in the visible universe. Each star is a sun, like our own, probably with planets around them. The evolution of life, it is widely believed, comes as an inevitable consequence of a certain amount of time on a planet in a stable orbit which is not too hot or too cold. First comes chemical evolution — chance rearrangements of basic matter, then biological evolution.

“Think of the kind of life that may have evolved on those planets over the millennia, and think, too, what relatively giant technological strides man has made on Earth in the six thousand years of his recorded civilization — a period that is less than a single grain of sand in the cosmic hourglass.

“At a time when man’s distant evolutionary ancestors were just crawling out of the primordial ooze, there must have been civilizations in the universe sending out their starships to explore the farthest reaches of the cosmos and conquering all the secrets of nature. Such cosmic intelligences, growing in knowledge over the eons, would be as far removed from man as we are from the ants.

“They could be in instantaneous telepathic communication throughout the universe; they might have achieved total mastery over matter so that they can telekinetically transport themselves instantly across billions of light years of space; in their ultimate form they might shed the corporeal shell entirely and exist as a disembodied immortal consciousness throughout the universe.”

His words and the allegory of Interstellar in combination echo the entire reason for this book: that future humans would, in no way, be any less than God.

Like in his book Homo deus, (Human god) which gives a glimpse of the dreams and nightmares that will shape the 21st century, Professor Yuval Noah Harari talks about now that humans are advancing into a dreamlike technological manifold, what will happen to democracy when Google and Facebook come to know our likes and our political preferences better than we know them ourselves? What will happen to the welfare state when computers push humans out of the job market and create a massive new “useless class”? How might Islam handle genetic engineering? Will Silicon Valley end up producing new religions and gods, rather than just novel gadgets? Harari talks about a world where humans life will effortlessly span over 150 years. By 2100 humans may be able to overcome death with nanotechnology, genetic engineering and regenerative medicines.

According to the book, anyone possessing a healthy bank account and a healthy body may cheat death a decade at a time. “Every 10 years you can march into a clinic and get a makeover treatment that will not only cure your illnesses, but will also regenerate decaying tissues, and upgrade hands, eyes and brains. Before the next treatment is due, doctors would have invented a plethora of new medicines, upgrades and gadgets.”

Me being an anti-Royalty, I look at the generations of monarchy in UK cheating death, and living up to/over a 100 years, and I am thinking, we are probably seeing such immortals around us already!

Why just medicines, Baba Ramdev, the yoga guru of India has revived the 5000-year-old method of keeping oneself healthy only with yoga and pranayama[2].  He says, “If, with daily yoga and pranayama, you are pumping enough oxygen into your lungs, heart, cells and brain; exercising the inner organs regularly; with yoga, you are keeping every muscle, every tissue, ligament, cartilage healthy and operating, how will you die?” 

Like the mystic, Sadhguru says, “This is the best era for humans to be living in.” According to Prof Harari, in Homo deus, humans are no longer in a state where they can die of starvation. Come hail or high storm or any Earthquake or tsunami, with the universal survival kits reaching to every corner of the globe, there is a very little probability that humans will die of starvation.

Actually, more and more humans will die of over-eating, he says.  Humans have conquered most diseases that were slapped upon humanity throughout history. And it will… is… conquering Covid too.

Will that turn humans more and more like God? With our clear, yet, struggling path towards attaining immortality through the use of replacement organs, cybernetics, gene manipulation, computerized brain emulation, or a combination of all these and holistic, alternative and natural means of extending life; very definite and bold strides towards inter-planetary homes; a theoretical, yet plausible phenomenon of time-travel; and a gamut of technological advancements we are seeing every day, man can very surely call himself the future people of the universe.

Of course, God with a capital ‘G’ is way beyond that! We are only talking small steps to cheat death. We are trying to get away from the scythe of Grim Reaper and the mace of Yamaraja[3].

But what about the other life-threatening actions that are already killing humans in millions? Already endangering the life on planet Earth? In one hand, we are trying to achieve immortality, on the other, we are destroying the only home we have, or can have in a few hundred years to come.

I understand that Nasa and SpaceX are making great headways to Mars. Scientists are even thinking of terraforming Venus, by altering its atmosphere, and are on their way to making the Moon our refueling base. But how about altering our own atmosphere to reduce global warming? How about stopping the waste of plastic, which is engulfing marine life and choking Earth? How about educating those militants and stopping the vicious wars? How about eliminating religions completely from humanity that sets the ball of hatred rolling in the first place?

“Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You, you may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you will join us

And the world will be as one

~John Lennon

The above lyrics of the John Lennon song is very futuristic, and humans can only attempt to reach even the 5th dimension if they abandon religions and countries altogether. We know that there are 11 dimensions, and only beyond that is the abode of God. We also know about the Kardashev’s scale, and that humanity has only reached a big ZERO in that scale so far. Hence, only after we achieve near-immortality, only after we manage to harness the power of more than one planet, only after we start living in complete peace and only after we have conquered all viruses and tamed death, can we even think of achieving a Godly status.

So, is the “they” that Dr Brad in Interstellar was referring to, future humans, and not God? (I think the overuse of Zimmerman’s organ tricked our minds into believing that “they’ was being referred to as Gods.) Who have already advanced into the other dimensions that they could create a tesseract[4] in the space to save present humanity?

So, if Cooper saved humans from the 5th dimension, opened the wormhole and engineered the whole sequence of events, guided his past self and his daughter on how to save humanity, there is a compelling question, how did future Cooper exist in the first place? You cannot exist if you weren’t there in the past, correct? Kind of shown fittingly in the ending of the 1985 film, Back to the Future.

Which is to say, you can’t travel back in time and engineer your own salvation. Don’t you first have to be saved, so that you will exist in the future to travel back in time? This isn’t a “chicken or the egg” question as much it is a “chicken travels back in time and lays egg that hatches and becomes that chicken” question, and that’s kind of eerie. 

Very well shown in the movie, Predestined. A must watch.

But even if we assume that future Cooper saved past Cooper with the help of present Cooper; that future humans, aka God, are saving us each day, it is possible that they are creating our destiny exactly the way they have been made. When we chose path ‘Y’ over path ‘X’, in taking a major decision in life, with the understanding of the science of future humans, we can safely conclude that that path was guided to be taken by our future self, who has already taken that path.

In other words, when our parents and astrologers told us that our destiny is pre-determined, they weren’t fibbing. This means that we have lived and lived over and over again to make the decisions that has already been made by our future selves. It makes sense of the word ‘reincarnation’. Like if you’ve not achieved something in this life, you will come back in next life, and then your future self will direct you to achieve that.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. ~ John Lennon. 

But what if we are the future humans, can we time travel into our past selves and change our decisions? No. Not yet. For that we have to invent time-travel first.

This is getting my head and yours too, reeling, I’m sure. But look at it this way, when we talk about another ‘you’ existing in a parallel dimension, who may have taken the path ‘X’ instead, or in another dimension, the path ‘Z’, and their respective future selves were guiding them in taking that path, the whole thing falls into a pattern and becomes a plausible ‘fiction’. I cannot write ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ here, as these are completely my rationalization of the existing jibber-jabber. I’ll just stick to my astrologer for the time.

[1] In geometry, the tesseract is the four-dimensional analogue of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of six square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of eight cubical cells. The tesseract is one of the six convex regular 4-polytopes.

[2] Prāṇāyāma is the practice of breath control in yoga. It is a distinct breathing exercise, usually practiced after asanas, It consists mainly of three techniques:pūrak (inhale), rechak (exhale), kumbhak. It also consists of synchronizing the breath with movements between asanas. This is extensively discussed in texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and later in Hatha yoga texts.

[3] In Hinduism, Yama or Yamaraja is a Rigvedic deity. He is the lord of death and justice, responsible for the dispensation of law and punishment of sinners in his abode, Yamaloka.

[4] The Tesseract makes its onscreen debut in Captain America: The First Avenger and then plays the role of MacGuffin over and over again in various Marvel films. In Interstellar, it is where Coop and TARS enter after passing through the event horizon (the boundary at which even light cannot escape) of the gargantuan black hole.

…

In other words, when our parents and astrologers told us that our destiny is pre-determined, they weren’t fibbing. This means that we have lived and lived over and over again to make the decisions that has already been made by our future selves. It makes sense of the word ‘reincarnation’. Like if you’ve not achieved something in this life, you will come back in next life, and then your future self will direct you to achieve that.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end. ~ John Lennon. 

But what if we are the future humans, can we time travel into our past selves and change our decisions? No. Not yet. For that we have to invent time-travel first.

This is getting my head and yours too, reeling, I’m sure. But look at it this way, when we talk about another ‘you’ existing in a parallel dimension, who may have taken the path ‘X’ instead, or in another dimension, the path ‘Z’, and their respective future selves were guiding them in taking that path, the whole thing falls into a pattern and becomes a plausible ‘fiction’. I cannot write ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ here, as these are completely my rationalization of the existing jibber-jabber. I’ll just stick to my astrologer for the time

An extract from my 6th book: WtF I Found God

In India: WtF I Found God

Please feel free to comment your thoughts below.

Is this ‘me’ from a parallel universe?

Look at this picture. I saw ‘myself’ the other day on TV. Doing Yoga. A past me. In a place where I never went. This video was uploaded four years ago, in 2020, when I looked just like what I look in this picture. I freaked out! It was like I was looking at my past self. I even have that purple color T-shirt!

But this was not me. I never went there ever. Though I do a lot of yoga.

So is it me from a parallel universe?

Parallel universes are no longer a figment of imagination.  Scientists believe they exist, in theory. It seems that a complete ‘me’ or ‘you’ exists in another universe, leading some other life.

Actually, there are not just one universe, there are several, in fact, they are called multi-verses. And there are, according to physicist Michio Kaku, 11 dimensions in the multi verse.

In a recent earth-shattering claim, first by British tabloid The Daily Star, and then picked up by British and American outlets, including The New York Post, it was reported that NASA had discovered particles from another parallel universe in which time runs backward. Four years ago, a particle detector hanging from a balloon over Antarctica detected something physics could not explain. The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) instrument picked up signals of high-energy particles that seemed to shoot straight up out of the Antarctic ice.

Scientists were befuddled, as they believed particles like this shouldn’t exist and couldn’t have been able to fly all the way through the Earth and burst out the other side at such high energies, but that’s what ANITA was detecting.

Quickly, The Daily Star claimed that these were bursts from a parallel universe that ANITA was detecting, and other newspapers lapped it up.

However, these claims were later declared as incorrect. The true story, although, is believed to be far more exciting and strange, involving a journey into the Big Bang and out the other side, though all of it has been drawn on paper.

As of what ANITA detected could be something known as ‘sterile neutrinos’. If particles really came from space, then plunged through the Earth to produce the anomaly, they must have decayed just under the Antarctic surface, producing a shower of lighter particles that ANITA detected popping up from the ice.

However, let us not get into scientific jargon if it doesn’t exactly lead us to a parallel universe we are looking for.

But a paper published in December 2018 by Canadian physicists, proposed a mirror universe — a reflection of our universe across time, of time running backwards.

Here we need to understand that when astronomers look deep into space, they’re effectively looking back in time. The most distant galaxy we can see, GN-z11, appears to us as it existed 13.4 billion years ago, or 400 million years after the Big Bang.

The Canadian scientists explain their theory like this: Imagine today’s universe as a wide, flat circle, sitting on top of yesterday’s slightly smaller circle, which sits on top of the yet-smaller circle of the day before that. Some of those circles, or times, can be seen with our powerful telescopes. (We all know that the star we see in the sky has probably died millions of years ago, as it takes several light years for any light from the stars to reach us. This is how we look past into time.)

So, coming back to it, this drawing of circles goes on till we are drawing a kind of a funnel, narrowing into a deep circle which scientists call the “dark ages”, lasting for millions of years, where nothing was bright enough to be seen by any telescope. 

Even before that, the universe produced the oldest thing we can see: The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which formed 370,000 years after the Big Bang, as the universe cooled out of a hot, opaque plasma. Telescopes can’t see anything from before the CMB.

Looking back in time like this is like looking down through the cosmological cone, or a funnel. Viewed in this way, the ΛCDM story ends with the universe coming together into a single point hidden behind the CMB.

The Canadian scientists look at the opaque wall the CMB forms across time and draw a different conclusion about what the CMB hides. What if the cone ends at the beginning of another inverted cone, hiding behind the CMB?

This vision of space-time still has a Big Bang hiding behind the CMB. They have assumably found that it extrapolates, it extends — it analytically continues, to this double cone, referring to the second universe extending away from the Big Bang in time.

A parallel universe!

Excerpt from my research work: WtF I Found God

Read the whole book here: In Flipkart, Notion Press, Barnes & Noble

(Just to compare, here is what I looked a few years back):

Are you still standing on your feet?

I hope there are a few left on this platform who are staying above this frenzied #rammandir fanaticism that is gripping #india ? I hope there are a few who understand that, just like the wispy existence of God, #ram too is a wispy character, who probably never existed? And even if he did, I hope you know that he banished his pregnant wife to the jungles, trying to please the society? If that is an act of “Purushottam“, then why are we complaining with our own partners? They are way better!

If you are still standing on your feet, and not on your head in this frenzy, this book, which explains what fanatism can do to you, can get your bearing back.

Another excerpt from the 400-page book. Link below.

“During Covid, all temples, churches and mosques were closed, priests went home, and the dying were left to die. Where was God during these times? I am a skeptical believer, but all those who prayed for Covid to go away, did God answer your prayers?

Before Covid, God was the Almighty, the omnipresent, omniscient. There were thousands flocking to Mecca to visit the Kabaa. Hundreds going to Vatican City, going on Sundays to the churches. Millions were pouring milk on the phallus of Shiva. Thousands were chanting “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna.” God was alive, among millions of humans.

And then suddenly Covid-19 struck. Churches were closed, the Kabaa shut down and temples closed doors. God shunned us during Covid.

And not just during Covid, God had earlier shunned us during the dark times, during the World Wars and in recent times, during the Syrian/Afghanistan war. Hence, all those tall claims that God will never let down his own children, what happened during these times? Did God go to sleep when all the Jews were being gassed?

Apparently not.

God, according to various religious teachers, is not there to protect you from all evils. He is just there to grant you strength to fight all evils.

Like a story goes, during the medieval times, whenever disease wanted to enter a village, it would not come alone. It would come with death and fear. So, one day, some Christian monks stood guard and asked the trio, how many people will you take this time? Disease replied, a few. Death replied, fewer than disease, and fear replied, no one.

However, at the end of the epidemic, everyone saw that fear had the greatest number of people following it. So, the monks asked, how did you break your promise? Fear replied, “I did not ask anyone to follow me, they all followed me involuntarily.”

Some Christians believe that the Christian God was weeping all along when He saw us suffering. Other Christians said that this was the judgement of God. Some were questioning the whereabouts of God in these times in books written during these times and having sold millions of copies. Citing the famous story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, they remembered how Jesus did not come on time to save Lazarus. But of course, Lazarus was resurrected.

But now, I mean, how is God even planning to resurrect all these 4 million dead during Covid-19?

Believers say that God was crying all along during these sufferings, when humans were all gasping for breath, choking to death. But — God is omnipotent, omniscient, all powerful.

And God loves you!

Why was He just crying at the miserable state of His most important creation? Couldn’t He squash that microscopic bug with one swish of His wand?

It seems He let you suffer because He loves you. And it seems that already prophesized thousands of years back that such calamities like disease and war will strike mankind. It might kill mankind, completely annihilate it, but it doesn’t matter. What only matters is your relationship with God. Jesus apparently told in the Bible, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him…” What only is getting eliminated is just the body, but our soul has an eternal relationship with God. So, Christians say do not fear Covid-19. It is just God’s way of screaming at you and asking you to turn to Him, saying that “Hey mankind, you need me!” “Look unto yourself and see how much you repent for your misdeeds.”

An excerpt from “WtF I Found God“

why i find the next generation will blow your mind !

HOW about A husband and A wife LIVING APART?

When you son grows up, and starts living on his own, you celebrate. You feel sad, but you celebrate. When your daughter grows up, starts living on her own, moves to another city or gets married, you feel sad. But you celebrate. It’s an occasion to cherish, a moment to be remembered.

So when a husband and a wife, who’ve lived together for so many years, have grown up apart and wants to move out, why is the society so sad? Why do you mourn? Why is there so much sadness and discomfort?

Am I again talking ahead of times? Or am I from another dimension?

Nope. I am from this planet. This generation. The receding generation, that is. But I always thought marriages should come with an expiry date. There cannot be a marriage that is happiness forever. The phrase “lived happily forever” is just the beginning of another story!

In fact, the term ‘Happily Married’ is an oxymoron. Two people; so much committed to each other; who hold no secret at all; know each other’s financial details to the core; can hurt each other with the greatest blow… this is all a tad unhealthy for personal space. That too, in this world, where no one really depend on one another. Two independent thinking people should NOT have so little space in between. That they have to sleep on the same bed, and whenever they toss or turn around, they’d have to see each other’s worst self, snoring, open-mouthed! Whatever! …

I am not saying marriage is a bad institution. I am saying marriage is NOT EVEN AN INSTITUTION anymore! Some millions of years back, to discipline the society, the concept of marriage was initialized. That’s over! The society is now way matured. We now know the price for having too many babies. We have birth control. We have sperm donors. We have adoption. We have test tube babies. We don’t need a marriage to have a baby. That was in my times. You don’t even need a partner.

So again! When are we getting the law implemented? And from which country, that we can register our marriage with an EXPIRY DATE? Yes, if you want, you can renew after, let’s say 7 years, which I think is a comfortable bargain. But the marriage should get null-and-void automatically after 7 years. How many of you agree to this? And no. You can ‘like’ this post even if you are “Happily Married”. I won’t judge you.

I am also “Happily Married”.

Just saying.

HOW about A husband and A wife MOVING OUT?

When you son grows up, and starts living on his own, you celebrate. You feel sad, but you celebrate. When your daughter grows up, starts living on her own, moves to another city or gets married, you feel sad. But you celebrate. It’s an occasion to cherish, a moment to be remembered.

So when a husband and a wife, who’ve lived together for so many years, have grown up apart and wants to move out, why is the society so sad? Why do you mourn? Why is there so much sadness and discomfort?

Am I again talking ahead of times? Or am I from another dimension?

Nope. I am from this planet. This generation. The receding generation, that is. But I always thought marriages should come with an expiry date. There cannot be a marriage that is happiness forever. The phrase “lived happily forever” is just the beginning of another story!

In fact, the term ‘Happily Married’ is an oxymoron. Two people; so much committed to each other; who hold no secret at all; know each other’s financial details to the core; can hurt each other with the greatest blow… this is all a tad unhealthy for personal space. That too, in this world, where no one really depend on one another. Two independent thinking people should NOT have so little space in between. That they have to sleep on the same bed, and whenever they toss or turn around, they’d have to see each other’s worst self, snoring, open-mouthed! Whatever! …

I am not saying marriage is a bad institution. I am saying marriage is NOT EVEN AN INSTITUTION anymore! Some millions of years back, to discipline the society, the concept of marriage was initialized. That’s over! The society is now way matured. We now know the price for having too many babies. We have birth control. We have sperm donors. We have adoption. We have test tube babies. We don’t need a marriage to have a baby. That was in my times. You don’t even need a partner.

So again! When are we getting the law implemented? And from which country, that we can register our marriage with an EXPIRY DATE? Yes, if you want, you can renew after, let’s say 7 years, which I think is a comfortable bargain. But the marriage should get null-and-void automatically after 7 years. How many of you agree to this? And no. You can ‘like’ this post even if you are “Happily Married”. I won’t judge you.

I am also “Happily Married”.

Just saying.

Why’s the society to uppity about husband and wife separation?

When you son grows up, and starts living on his own, you celebrate. You feel sad, but you celebrate. When your daughter grows up, starts living on her own, moves to another city or gets married, you feel sad. But you celebrate. It’s an occasion to cherish, a moment to be remembered.

So when a husband and a wife, who’ve lived together for so many years, have grown up apart and wants to move out, why is the society so sad? Why do you mourn? Why is there so much sadness and discomfort?

Am I again talking ahead of times? Or am I from another dimension?

Nope. I am from this planet. This generation. The receding generation, that is. But I always thought marriages should come with an expiry date. There cannot be a marriage that is happiness forever. The phrase “lived happily forever” is just the beginning of another story!

In fact, the term ‘Happily Married’ is an oxymoron. Two people; so much committed to each other; who hold no secret at all; know each other’s financial details to the core; can hurt each other with the greatest blow… this is all a tad unhealthy for personal space. That too, in this world, where no one really depend on one another. Two independent thinking people should NOT have so little space in between. That they have to sleep on the same bed, and whenever they toss or turn around, they’d have to see each other’s worst self, snoring, open-mouthed! Whatever! …

I am not saying marriage is a bad institution. I am saying marriage is NOT EVEN AN INSTITUTION anymore! Some millions of years back, to discipline the society, the concept of marriage was initialized. That’s over! The society is now way matured. We now know the price for having too many babies. We have birth control. We have sperm donors. We have adoption. We have test tube babies. We don’t need a marriage to have a baby. That was in my times. You don’t even need a partner.

So again! When are we getting the law implemented? And from which country, that we can register our marriage with an EXPIRY DATE? Yes, if you want, you can renew after, let’s say 7 years, which I think is a comfortable bargain. But the marriage should get null-and-void automatically after 7 years. How many of you agree to this? And no. You can ‘like’ this post even if you are “Happily Married”. I won’t judge you.

I am also “Happily Married”.

Just saying.

The Atheist Maestro Behind a 1950s Masterpiece of miniature Goddess Durga

My granddad was a craftsman, a sculptor too. Just as a hobby, he would make miniature idols of gods and goddesses, Durga mostly, and gift them at wedding invitations. He never believed in worshipping them. He never even believed in any supreme being. He was a staunch Marxist and atheist. But he loved decorating the Durga idol in our thakurdalan. Just when the pujas began and the priest started to chant the mantras loudly, he would swiftly leave the premises, smoked bidi outside, and entered the building only after all festival clamor had quietened down.

So, I cannot refrain from mentioning my granddad when talking of rituals and superstitions, and how he boldly, yet, lovingly shunned them, while the rest of the household was dunked in them. While I grew up majorly following my granddad’s path, I know that sinking feeling when a particular ritual that you have abandoned for some time, come haunting at you, any time there is a slightest turmoil in your life. (His name: Sri Gopal Chandra Dutta)

Personally, I have made sure none of those silly rituals from my ancestral home followed me in life, but when some blind superstitions like someone sneezing when you are leaving home, or keeping shoes one on top of another or something even more mundane, like placing green chilies in someone’s palm which might lead to a fiasco between the two, sneak up on me, I tend to give in.

From such banal superstitions, to forcing women to wear the cumbersome burqa and hiding women behind purdah , to full-blown rituals like human sacrifices, mankind has come a long way to establish itself as the unkindest and brutal of all species. It is the only species that kills one another not for food. (Page 132-133, WtF I Found God, now available at a huge discount, in India)

[Bidi] A type of inexpensive cigarette made of unprocessed tobacco wrapped in leaves

[Niqab] In more precise usage, niqab is a face veil that leaves the eyes uncovered, while a burqa covers the entire body from the top of the head to the ground, with only a mesh screen allowing the wearer to see in front of her.

[Purdah] the practice in certain Muslim and Hindu societies of screening women from men or strangers, especially by means of a curtain