Impromptu #4 - Another Random Post

Seemingly a lot of my recent writings have been random thoughts with little substance to think about and this is another post to add to that lot. Probably something that isn’t all that surprising considering I have my final exams for the sem coming up. My last few days have been sort of morose, the last minute rush of assignments, the farewells for the seniors and for good or for bad, the Diary of Anne Frank keeping me up at night are seemingly taking their toll.

My time on the laptop has also shot up recently, not just because of my assignments but because of a game that I’ve recently started playing. DOTA 2. This game is fabulously crafted with 104 ‘hero’s’ each of whom has a unique background and skill set with none of them being under or overpowered,  An amazing feat in and of itself. Add to this, heart stopping graphics and absorbing music and the end result is a game capable of stealing days of a person’s life before they realize it. The gameplay is challenging and has a steep learning curve, add contrary to expectations; this causes the excitement to build up rather than wane. My friend ends up spending well over 5 hours a day playing this before he calls it a day.  

An amazing game, and one I wish I had not started.

Bidding farewell to our seniors during the first two years felt sad, with a little emotion creeping in for the fact that I won’t be meeting them again for a while but this year, it was different. I don’t claim that I get very emotional nor that im very stoic at farewells but this time, the seniors were just an year senior to us and ones whom we knew extremely well. Besides that, there was an overpowering feeling of a grim reaper standing behind my ear whispering ‘You’re time is coming soon’, not in terms of mortality but a feeling close to it, that our time in the womb of this college might be at end and I sunk into nostalgic thoughts of what I achieved here, and what I wish I had done differently, what I learnt, my PS this summer and what I really ought to be doing instead of playing DOTA.

Science Fiction Blitz

Childhood’s End - Arthur C Clarke

Nightfall              - Isaac Asimov

The last few days, my waking time has centered around two things. Losing myself in the worlds of Clarke and Asimov followed by a post reading hangover thinking about what I just read. These books transcend ordinary science fiction and focus more on the human element of the stories.  Coming under the category of social science fiction, these books showcase reactions of humans (or equivalent races) to ingeniously defined scenarios.

 Childhood’s End describes the coming of age of the human race while under the control of an alien civilization and delves into the psyche of prominent humans in the age that follows while at the same time describing the reactions of the human race as a whole. The description and subtlety with which the book deals with the politics of taking care of a civilization as random as the human race, from the perspective of the overlords ensures that the reader is never sure which civilization he would rather side with. The book has several overlapping themes including science (obviously), philosophy, politics, psychology and surprisingly even spirituality, Para physics and mythology. Clarke manages to maintain suspense in the book with the plot shifting in ways that are unimaginable and ends on a very refreshing note being neither optimistic nor pessimistic.  It leaves the reader thinking of how we are tuned to only certain cues and never manage to be completely open minded even on things which we have never thought of or experienced.

“"You will find men like him in all the world's religions. They know that we represent reason and science, and however confident they may be in their beliefs, they fear that we will overthrow their gods.”

Impromptu #3 - Routine

Here I am, once again caught up in the humdrum of life, going to classes, giving presentations, writing quizzes every other day, working on inconsequential projects as a part of our courses, losing myself in the company of friends, reading random articles on the net. Stuck in the calm between storms, falling into a routine is something that is never immediately realized.

Falling into a routine does have its advantages, the comfortable life with no real thinking and no real effort is something that I can easily get used to partly because of my laziness. It gives me time to think and reflect back to what I want to do.  It also lets me spend all my time achieving none of it.

It’s this that kicks me back to action, when I realize that I’ve done nothing of what I wanted to achieve and that this routine is simply cheating me out of my time that I break out of it and get back to writing, reading papers and analyzing options and this is when I feel most alive but it always raises one question.

Why do I do what I do?

Mice on the Animal Farm

Suggestion: Read The Animal Farm by George Orwell before reading the following story

There was a celebration down at Manor Farm. Mr. Jones and his family sat at the table fully dressed with a fork and a spoon in hand feasting on food the likes of which the house hadn't seen for days. Mr. Mouse and his wife looked on from the crack in the wall in awe and were salivating at the thought of all the delicious leftovers they would be feasting on soon.

A week passed and Mr. Mouse was a worried mouse these days. There was a lot of excitement building up in the farm and everyone was singing “Beasts of England”. That night, he confided his worries to his wife. “I wonder what plans these rotten animals have, Mr. Jones has been our source of survival for so many generations, I wonder what ghost has gotten into them that they want to go against him. How do they plan to survive without him?” His wife gave a loud sigh and went to sleep. She didn't want to be troubled by all this

Anime Review - Shingeki no Kyojin

Shingeki no Kyojin literally meaning attack on titan is an anime that describes the fragility of human society.

Placed in a post apocalyptic era where the last remnant of human society tries to survive against huge human-like monsters called Titans.
The plot of season 1 starts off simple and reminds one of old school anime like Tengen Toppa but mid way through the series, it attains a life of its own and ensures that you can never guess what will happen next.

The best part of the anime though was the fact that it laid bare human feelings. Fear, Hate, Despair, Rage, Greed, Helplessness, Loyalty, Love, Friendship, Hope, the entire spectrum. The anime is soaked in blood and you feel the pain of loss at each instance and you pray for the survival of each character.




The characters are well drawn, extreme but realistic. They remind you of the extremes of emotions that humans are capable of when they pass through intense terror. While the characters are portrayed, you learn of their history and their nature seem plausible and you connect with each character. The main three characters Eren, Misaki and Armin each have their strengths and weaknesses and by the end of the season, you realize the role of each in the Anime. The support characters are as well described as the main characters. One of the themes of the anime is the mercilessness of the world and is amply shown throughout with no character being spared, you can never guess the next character who dies.

The Graphics and Drawing are well made with special attention on expressions on people. They highlight emotions of the characters as they pass through hell. The action appears in quick, intense bursts that leave the viewer gasping. The deaths, while not stressed upon, make an impact by sheer number. The music adds the the ambiance at various points but the viewer will almost never focus on it since the anime itself will hold the attention and never let go.

Fear and Hate more than anything is the driving force behind the characters of the anime and the various characters respond differently to it. The truly unique point about the anime is that it ruthlessly shows human nature in all its shades.

An anime that combines the best parts of TTGL and Code Geass, and makes you think. A anime that deserves a 25 episode marathon watching session.

Past, Present and the Future

In class, there was many a time when my friends and I pondered over why we studied history, boring stories about people who were now dead, countries that no longer exist and rules and regimes which have no influence in the present whatsoever. The question always met with the answer that the study of history was “To prevent history from repeating itself”, a statement made with the assumption that if man were to not be aware of what happened in the past, history would infinitely keep repeating itself, an ideology found in several religions. One which I have never fully understood. The reason being that it would require stagnation of human intellect and thought for the same decision to be taken century after century. It would need man to possess the exact same mental framework as the previous person who took the decision..... or to revere and emulate the previous person or his image that was carried forward into the future through the study of history. A contradiction which has never fully been tackled. Study of history might be the reason for repetition of history.

There’s an English idiom, “ Let the sleeping dogs lie” , and I would like to assume thoughts of egoism and superiority of races, genocide and the like were evolutionary tools necessary for survival in prehistoric times but a hell hole for trouble in the present times. It would be better off for humanity as a whole to try to avoid bringing up as a part of academic learning, instances of times when these feelings overpowered that of humanity in nations. We risk the birth of a new generation of people who hold the previous generations as their inspiration.

The Study of history to understand our past, to unravel mysteries of who we are and why we are, Study of the philosophies and methods of survival of previous civilizations, their culture and customs to further our understanding of our own past is what I perceive as its principle goal. Study of our past as an academic exercise for children who have a hard differentiating good from bad is an exercise heavily laden with risks.

The one thing that humans can do that animals can’t is to visualize the future, the consequences of decisions we make. This enables humans to think in ways different from animals whose thoughts focus solely on the present. We use history, both personal and learned as the framework for the visualization, which makes learning history an essential requirement to make a long term decision, but does a child need that? I would argue that a child should be allowed to experience as much as possible before carrying the additional weight of history.