Train of Wonder

Took my daughter to the zoo today, with the promise of face-painting and train ride, 2 activities which could very well have happened elsewhere. The only animal we saw was a starfish, taking shape in the form of a glitter tattoo on my daughter's hand. But the glimmer in her eyes and the bounce in her walk were sufficient indicators of a fun, enjoyable, successful outing.

The sense of wonder a child has is simply fascinating.  That is why they do not actually speak - they exclaim! It is a jolting reminder of the fact that we were children too, and that we are either losing that sense of wonder or have completely lost it. I envy the scientists, visionaries, and futurists who make wonder their profession and dream up realities (or realize dreams?) that feel like a dream within a dream until they are in your hands, fully materialized and operational. What is amazing is the fact that an invention like the iPad, which re-instilled a sense of wonder in adults via it's gesture-based interface, is lapped up by a child with utmost ease, as if he/she practiced tap, swipe, pinch, and zoom in the womb itself.

The train ride was of course the highlight of the trip to the zoo, which, even if taken via a train, would definitely not have measured up to the zoo's train ride. I wonder what is it about these mini-train rides that fascinates children and adults alike.

For children, I think it is the microcosm of an adventurous trip, with every outdated, low-key or non-existent event brought into full relief in line with what they grow up reading - a choo-choo train, the woot-woot of the whistle, wind blowing straight into the face, sights that can be soaked in without the barrier or walls or glass windows, and of course the cries of joy and wonder from fellow children.

For adults, it is a great escape from the hustle-bustle of daily life. It's like being in a time loop where they get to experience wonders through the eyes of a child or even recall their childhood, and then are back to exactly where they started.

The risky thing about the zoo train ride is that it sometimes makes you forget that you are going to get back to square one. It makes possibilities seem more concrete than they actually are, makes the scenery occasionally shimmer with unreal glaze, and makes the world a little more wondrous than it actually is. Interestingly and figuratively, life's train ride occasionally has the same effect. Got to be careful!

Delicious Absurdities

There is something about this phrase coined by a close friend that makes complete sense. Which is kind of absurd in itself and that makes it all the more surreal. So anyway, let's talk about Audrey Hepburn, the purpose of which will become clear within a paragraph.

The ethereal beauty of Audrey Hepburn is aptly matched by the vulnerability, confidence, compassion and true lack of judgment she projects. I don't know how she was in real life, but Roman Holiday did it for me. If I were the director, I would have cast her in Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and Mary Poppins. Oh wait, she was already cast in My Fair Lady (much to the chagrin of Julie Andrews, who did the stage version) which is awesome already. I have huge respect for Julie Andrews, and she is a complete package (Audrey lip-synched to someone else's voice in My Fair Lady. Julie is a fantastic singer). Julie Andrews somehow doesn't project vulnerability very well - you would almost think she was admonishing you from across the screen for thinking about Audrey and not taking your medicine because a spoonful of sugar always makes the medicine go down. Now you are thinking - 'get to the point!'. But this blog is intended to meander at its own pace - the tennis player Meander Pace would attest, probably! There's an absurdity...

There is a song in Mary Poppins that goes 'I love to laugh'. It very accurately captures what I and my band of dear friends feel when I get together to poke fun at life's oddities, pull seemingly random connections out of the sky to create a roaringly funny point of view, and build quickly upon the concepts of each other to redefine life itself in highly comical vignettes. There's pure joy in that moment, which is totally untethered, is not created to meet any objective except the enjoyment of that moment itself, and serves to create the much-needed condiments we need to add taste to the dish called bland, mundane life! The laughter that results in that moment is soul-uplifting, as if we are rising through the air towards the sky for union with a cosmic consciousness that is constantly laughing at it's own creation. That rise and float feeling is beautifully captured in the 'I love to laugh' song:

Mary Poppins - I Love to Laugh

I remember exactly when me and my friends stumbled upon this remarkable phenomenon. My friend with the last name Menon used to live in Ranchi in a colony called MECON (Metallurgical and Engineering Consultants). We were talking about Menon and MECON when someone asked MECON (mai kaun)? The answer - Mai Nun! That's where this started and I would say that our dexterity has reached the point of being able to create skits in real-time! And it's infectious, because more and more friends around our core group are discovering the joys of it, including kids. Even though people might deny it at face value sometimes and consider this whole exercise childish, it's important to consider that we might just be trying to regain the sense of wonder that we felt growing up, and absurdity is a vehicle to that end!

I will close with 4 brilliant observations from my dearest friends (and myself ;-)), or phattas as they have come to be known:

1. A man says after vasectomy - 'Condom or no condom, vas the deferens?'

2. After discussing an advertisement about Erectile Dysfunction which shows drooping plants followed by an, ahem, upright cactus after treatment which begs the question 'why a cactus' - 'it's a cactus because it represents thorny, t silent'

3. After discussing my interest in getting an elliptical, learning that a friend has it and on his offer to give it to me - 'you can just ride the elliptical to NJ. At the end of it, you will have had so much exercise that you might not even need it!'

4. "The fas ting I do in the morning is break fasting!"

Metal in Air

Take a metal cylinder and slap two metal strips, with imperceptible top-rounding and bottom flatness, on both sides. Install a mechanism under those strips to suck in air, mix it with flammable material, and shoot out hot air from the back. Put a vertical strip on the back of the cylinder, cut out flaps here and there to allow control, push it through an invisible medium, and hope that Bernoulli's principle will really work everytime!

That's your recipe for building an airplane, an invention that fascinates me no end. I remember seeing a movie in my childhood called 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' that chronicled mankind's repeated failed attempts to take flight followed by success - that sequence was simply amazing, and it left an indelible print on my mind. Imagine the feelings Wright Brothers (Wilbur has a sing-song feel to his name. Remember the hindi song Wilbur, Wilbur; Wilbur, Wilbur?) must have had when they saw the labor of their love take to the skies. If China was into manufacturing then, the two Wrights would have made a Wong implement their mass production intent.

A friend of mine used to say - 'Do not trust metal in air!'. While I can understand that sentiment, I do not identify with it. What is the risk in squeezing yourself into a crammed enclosure with hundreds of souls, with nowhere to go but down if there are issues? The inability to pull over might be a little worrisome, but I have never been a nervous flier (I am writing this while I am in the air). Then there's analysis that suggests you could go flying for 123,000 years before a crash occurs. That will be a long flight and I don't know where I will end up. Hope they invent a teleportation device long before then.

Flight provides a perspective on how inconsequential we really are in the bigger scheme of things, and how small we are on the cosmic scale. Remember that when you are frantically trying to complete a work document on the plane, instead of enjoying the landscape, the clouds, and the sheer beauty of the clear blue sky. Oh, you can decide to write a blog article too...

PS. That feeling of complete stillness while moving at a 1000 kilometers per hour, when the plane is above the clouds and the blue sky gives you no sense of movement, is simply incredible!

Higher Resolution

People who see life in high definition owe it to themselves and the world to help people, that see life in standard definition, achieve higher resolution.

While they will be ridiculed and chided
Their perspectives occasionally derided
Their suggestions might go unabided
And leave people confused, undecided

But they can see the forest from the sea of trees
Silent islands from the screaming seas
Unperturbed dandelions in the troubled breeze
The firm resolve in old, wobbly knees

They always bring equilibrium, a calm solution
That might seem counter-intuitive, even a delusion
Give them a fair chance, they don't sell illusion
For they see life in higher resolution...

What's in my Mind? My own business...

So far I have been writing about what's on my mind. It felt like time to start writing about what's in my mind. My mind is my own business but please feel free to visit and review the surroundings...