Optimistically nostalgic

Quarantine makes you do funny things. Lately, I have been feeling nostalgic , more  than usual. I think it is a collective phenomenon, I have been seen more posts on Twitter and facebook about others also on a nostalgic memory trip. It is clear now that we live in a much more complicated world today, and we all yearn to live in a little more simpler times.

There is no denying it, the 90s was the best decade to live in India. Especially late 90s, and early 2000s, the transition to the new century and new millennium. We made such a big hype and hoopla about it, the move into the new millennium. Year 2000 was supposed to usher in the futuristic years, it had a certain ring to it, and it promised changes, and a better life. As kids, we loved all of this, a phenomenon that only occurs once in a thousand years. We are gen-x, and we would grow up and shape the coming decades. There was so much optimism in the air back then.

Not that it did not happen, it did. Changes did come, and life did get better, for most of us. But it also became faster. Without realizing it, we ushered in a new decade of being late, of getting busier. Despite all the technological advancements, people are always in a hurry, to get to places, to get more work done in the same 24 hour period. And that , for me is the big irony of the internet age.

Reminds me of that poem , Leisure , by W H Davies.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

 

And these are precisely the kind of things I used to do as a child. Walk and run in wide open spaces, looking at sheep and cows, climb trees, smell the flowers. Enjoying the stars at night, listening to sounds of owls, crickets and frogs. I had a cycle, literally grew up on one, which I used to pedal everywhere. And had a bunch of friends to meet and hangout with almost everyday. By mid 90s, new channels started appearing on the TVs, and internet arrived by the late 90s. But these were all so expensive, and out of the budget of kids like ourselves. So we would go out to a café and send and email, but also meet the recipient later in the day, and tell them we had emailed them. So the next day, they would visit the café and read that email.

Waste of time ? Sure. Waste of money ? 100 %!! But it was fun. And we did all this knowing we needn’t worry too much about the future. A bright, and optimistic future where there would be no problems, and everyone was happy, and had time for each other. Something told us we could still enjoy the outdoors, and each other’s company well into our thirties. In fact, we all wanted to grow up so fast. Thirties was the age to be in !!

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The thirties suck. Unless you have a few good things to look forward to. Small pockets of joy to nurture yourself on, and small challenges to overcome. Watching movies about contagions is one thing, living through that hell is something far worse. The only thing one can have in these difficult time is hope.

If you can’t hope to go back, you can always hope for a better future.

 

 

 

Too much, too fast.

 

First day back in office today. Technically, that was last week, but everyone here takes and extended one week off into the new year. So, Jan 7 it is.

Weather has been playing games, last week it was so hot, and this week it is now back to winter ! And..it rained on the weekend.

But reading the news, it seems the world too wants to hit the ground running. So much happening, and it has been only 7 days into 2019.

Mr Trump is still trying to build his wall, and now wants  AMERICANS to pay for it, instead of Mexico. But there is a place where somebody is really building walls.

Down south in Kerala, my place, they built a human wall, a women’s wall, to show their strength. It was a massive success, and while all this was capturing attention, two women finally achieved that which scores of others had failed at.

Then , there was the strike. Embarassed, and insulted, religious men decided to show their strength the only way they can, by shutting places down and destroying public property. Too bad for them, merchant’s association decided to boycott their strike. Is this all really happening ?

Meanwhile, more earthquakes hit Italy and Indonesia. And one more mass shooting in the US, and the yellow vest protests in France. And Indians are still trying to claim their scientific superiority by making absurd claims about its past. And Australia is only worried about its climate, and its cricket losses.

So much happening. Too fast.

This is going to be a long year.

 

Professor Hawking continues to radiate

 

Yesterday was Pi day, and also the birthday of Einstein. So I was expecting to read all those nerdy articles they usually come up with. But later in the day, the devastating news of the demise of Prof Stephen Hawking upset us all. Very few scientists have attained the kind of cult status with Professor Hawking had attained. His persistent scientific approach, his zest for life was a inspiration to many.

But thinking of him now, I am reminded of my own childhood friend, who passed away years ago. His name was Krishnadev, and it was him who had introduced me to Hawking and his Hawking radiation. Way back in school days, physics was my favourite subject. Our school textbooks did not have the time to dedicate entire chapters to subjects like stars and universes, which honestly cannot be covered in a million chapters. The school course at that time, and I think even till this day, was backward in comparison to contemporary scientific knowledge. The 10th grade physice text book did mention black holes, but made no mention of Hawking radiation. It was ‘out of syllabus’. But there was a genius in our class who was always ten steps ahead of the class teacher. C Krishnadev, who would later end up in IIT Chennai, was the brightest mind I personally knew, and a kind hearted and good friend. He told me about this fantastic book called ‘A Brief History of Time’, which was available in our school library. And how that one book had more knowledge than all of the world’s religious books combined. I expected it to be a comic or science fiction of some sort, it was not. But it turned out to be so much more entertaining and fun than anything I had read at that time. I was surprised that none of that was in our ‘prescribed’ course syllabus at that time.

Anyway, thats when I started hero worshipping Prof Hawking. I have also downloaded and tried to read his doctoral Thesis , ‘Properties of Expanding Universes’, but frankly, I have now forgotten the little high school physics I had. The 1966 doctoral thesis by the world’s most recognisable scientist is the most requested item in Apollo with the catalogue record alone attracting hundreds of views per month. In just the past few months, the University has received hundreds of requests from readers wishing to download Professor Hawking’s thesis in full.  Not everyone can truly understand this work, his best selling book is a much more concise and simplfied read.

Up until that point, I had expected Hawking to be just that, a highly capable scientist, whos genius cannot be gauged by the common man. But later I was surprised when I saw this popularity continuing to rise, and the pop culture emerging around him. He showed no signs of resting. He gave more talks and appearances, he appeared on TV in the news as well as in TV shows. He was featured in cartoons and sketches. He even sang for Monty Python !

Along with Prof Tyson,  and Prof Brian Cox, he became one of our generation’s rockstar astrophysicist. Suddenly, science was cool !

Religion was an early attempt to answer the questions we all ask, why are we here ? Where did we come from ? Nowadays, science provides better and more consistent answers, but people will always cling to religion because it gives comfort. And they do not trust or understand science.  - Prof Stephen Hawking

And that is the truth about science, it has always been cool. As the generation of religous, superstitious and doomsday obsessed pessimists wither away, a new generation of young scientists will come in, to carry on the good work done by generations of past scientists. We may not understand the mysteries of our universe today, but mankind as a whole, will be able to do that at some point in future.  And scientists like Prof Hawking will continue to inspire them. A different kind of Hawking radiation, so to speak.

 

 

He did his part. It is upto us now.

Our comfort is ruining the planet

 

We keep reading about how humans are slowly destroying the planet. We also keep reading about how a few try to do some good and negate the effect. Turns out, the amount of bad greatly outnumbers the good being done. The more we try to live comfortably on earth, the more we ruin the planet. There are now so many of us on Earth that the planet just doesn't have enough resources for us all to live comfortably, which means we require a radical rethink of how we could start living within our means.

A new study by researchers at University of Leeds looked at 151 nations and found not a single one was running itself in a sustainable way – ensuring a decent life for its inhabitants without taking more than it gives back in terms of natural resources. Even the most developed countries are using up natural resources at rates unheard of before, to maintain their high standard of living. While the other countries score far worse on both scales. As can be seen in this graph, the sweet spot quadrant, the top left, is wide empty.

The researchers used 11 different indicators to measure the quality of life in a country: life satisfaction, healthy life expectancy, nutrition, sanitation, income, access to energy, education, social support, democratic quality, equality, and employment.

That was then measured against 7 biophysical indicators, including the ones we've already mentioned, along with material footprint, nitrogen use, and blue water use. Each country's allotted share of these resources was based on its global population.

No country performed well on both scales. In general, the more social thresholds a country achieves, the more planetary boundaries it exceeds, and vice versa.

Although wealthy nations like the US and UK satisfy the basic needs of their citizens, they do so at a level of resource use that is far beyond what is globally sustainable. In contrast, countries that are using resources at a sustainable level, such as Sri Lanka, fail to meet the basic needs of their people.

Among the countries doing the best job are Vietnam, with 6 social thresholds achieved and only 1 biophysical boundary transgressed, and Germany, which hits all 11 social thresholds but has exceeded 5 of the 7 biophysical boundaries.

So thats the future for us, we are slowly eating into the planet. Developing nations, like India, languishing in the bottom, follow the blueprint set forth already by developed nations, with neither the funds or the inclination for alternatives. Almost everything we do, from having dinner to surfing the internet, uses resources in some way, but the connections between resource use and human well-being are not always visible to us.