School Reunion

I have a lot of college buddies I am in touch with. I even meet a few of them pretty often. While there are a couple high school buddies in the area, there isn't quorum enough for frequent encounters. We did a few local meetings a while back - the four of us. Then we had kids and careers, and life took over.

Last week, three friends from out of town flew, and one drove, and the rest of us met up with them. We all hung out together, remembered old days, talked about our current lives, and caught up. It was a such a treat!

We have all not changed much - but each seems to have grown a lot, and become very beautiful! Somehow, I never thought of us as beautiful in high school. Was it the lousy uniforms?

Our professions vary vastly from running a granite business, to entrepreneur, to housewife, to doctor. Our children are all different ages, from high school to elementary school. Yet, when we were together, we were the same old girls from 25 years ago. We fussed about our hair, drank like a fish, danced like a maniac, and gossiped till the morning.

Thank you girls for the lovely, lovely, time. Before life takes over one more time, let us plan our next get together.

F = dp/dt

I don't remember when it was that I first learnt Newton's three laws of motion. It was a long time ago. It was love at first sight with the second law. I spent many a night, wondering why Newton chose to make it the second law. Did it not deserve to the be the first law? Or, maybe, the last, like that unexpected ending in a Saki story?

I then started reading any popular science book I could lay my hands on. I was romancing physics. Many books introduced me to newer concepts from Tao to Big Bang - but there was only one that seemed to illustrate the beauty that first drew me to Physics: Physics For The Inquiring Mind by Eric. M. Rogers.

We all find simplicity beautiful. The clean purposeful lines in a building, the no-nonsense attitude in a person, the concept of recursion in programming, are all beautiful. With every simplification, it feels like I am clearing out a part of my brain, storing what I need in a shelf, and making space for more. It was the simplicity of the law, the ability to explain the whole world in a nugget that was my undoing.

The second law explains that Force or Impulse is the same as the rate of change in momentum. Momentum, is   thus constant if there is no Force. This is inertia. A ball drops to the floors, rolls away, and even stops exactly as described in the second law.

Some day, when my kids grow to be teenagers, I hope they will discover simplicity, and fall in love too.

Then again, my husband was a quizzer. His was in love with trivia and lots of unrelated facts. Maybe they will take after him.

Navarathri

As a kid, this was my favorite festival. It didn't just get done in one day, or even two (like Holi and Diwali), it went on for ten days, not counting all the days of prep before. It seemed like a this festival had something for all: great food, craft work, theater, singing, dancing, art work, games, you name it! I was lucky enough to live in a cosmopolitan university town to see it all come together.

We had the local mela with gol-guppa stands, the games, Ram Lila and the all-important burning of Ravan. We had the larger than life statues of Durga, bengali sweets, garba dances, sundal, singing, and my favorite, GOLU. For me, Golu was all about craft work. One could make houses with shoe boxes, dolls from rags, clay mountains, and fields of sprouted mustard. One spent hours arranging the beds and tables to make the steps, and covering them - just so - with white bedsheets, for display.

Even though, Golu was not a family tradition, I convinced my mom to adopt it, and make it one. Now, years later, the brats and I put together a golu every year, with the brats doing more and more every year. To celebrate the diversity of this festival and of the land we live in, we try to represent different countries, cultures, and races in our golu. We have a beautiful vintage dutch girl, a chinese couple, a namibian herero tribal, a cambodian princess, a korean woman, a japanese geisha and more in our golu collection. This year, we constructed a village house, a performing stage and multiple rangolis - one with daal, one with flower petals, one with paint, and one with chalk.

I am no longer a little girl in pig tails, and have to juggle work, dinner, family time, laundry, and cleaning, in addition to making the Golu. When the kids decide to try a new project, I find myself working to make sure that they do not spill glue, leave bits of paper strewn, or topple one of the delicately balanced golu-padis. Every bone hurts at the end of the day - and I am constantly battling the brats to limit the scope of our Golu. Yet, every moment is worth it, and I look forward to many years of Golu, and hope that the brats, and their brats, will continue this tradition.

[Picture is of our golu this year when it almost came together]

Conforming to society

Bhaiya-ji once said:

"At college, one learns to walk into a five star hotel in hawai chappals* - with dignity. In grad school one learns what kind of shoes one is supposed to wear in a five star hotel."

It just occured to me that the second part of this education (conformance) has absolutely no value without the completion of the first (non-conformance)!

(* rubber flip flops are called hawaii chappals in India)

In memory of Sam

Event 1: remote-hamlet-where-parents-live gets STD (long distance calling facility)
Event 2: parents finally see how a phone would be useful and get one
Event 3: This means no more "trunk calls" and endless waiting. I am all excited and write to them asking if their phone is the "black or elephant grey one". Clearly, there were only two options.
Event 4: Other such parents also get STD connections in their hamlets, and buy phones
Event 5: They all try to call their daughters at the same time, which is clear from Event 6
Event 6: Mom writes to Alice: "I am exhausted trying to redial over and over for 2 hours. At the end, when we finally got through, you weren't there. This is not working."
Event 7: Dad writes to Alice: "Lines are clear only before 6am. We will henceforth call you at 5:20am on Sunday mornings. Be by the phone. We will try up to 6 am, and give up if we do not get through."

Often, the world produces people who do something that changes our lives irrevocably. They are freedom fighters, inventors, philosophers, terrorists, policy makers, and such.

Sam Pitroda certainly changed mine: it was 5:20am every Sunday for 4 whole years!

A daughter's plea

I spent this weekend reading old letters I wrote to, or received from my parents, brother, friends, etc. It brought to life an Alice 10 to 20 years younger. In many ways, that Alice was amazingly mature, yet quite naive; serious, yet funny; rebellious, yet understanding. However, in one aspect, Alice is just like any other girl her age - in desperate need of money :)

Alice's letter to Mom and Dad:

...
I am giving below a rough estimate of my expenditure for the next few days:
Mess : Rs1500
Exam fee : Rs500
Postage : Rs300
Return Ticket, Luggage booking van, etc. : Rs200
Soaps and such, medical, other miscellaneous : Rs1000
Treats, reminiscence book, passing out t-shirt, farewell dinner: Rs1000
Project : Rs500
________________
Total : Rs5000

You've already sent Rs2000 - that means Rs3000 extra!!! God help you!

Lovingly,
Alice

Dad's respond to Alice (with a draft for Rs 3000):

Dear Alice,

Rockefeller wants to remain Rockefeller. Either he can keep his money or he can make money continuously to feed Rockefeller's daughter. Later proposition is probably the only choice. Don't you agree?

We will telephone you on Sunday morning (5:20 am). Be awake near the hostel phone. (Loose sleep on Sunday also? Moneyed people won't sleep; money needing people also won't sleep.)

Acknowledge credit of Rs 1000, Rs 2000, Rs, 3000, etc.

Your affectionately,
Rockefeller

Alice's response to Dad:

...

Received Rs1000, Rs2000, and Rs3000 all. Thanks. Shall I follow the arithmetic progression? (Thank got it isn't a geometric progression!)

...


Love, Alice

Alice agrees with Rockefeller on him having to make more money (different thread):

...

7. I gain that a sustained boom in the stock market is expected. From what you told me earlier, your shares now amount to nearly nil. Do you plan to juggle and invest in shares again? Or is it impossible/unadvisable given the present house loan commitments?

Rest later.
Love, Alice

The immortality of the Immortal Picture Stories

A young cousin of mine, when asked to compare the prowess of Hanuman and Jordan, had said: "You cannot do that. You see, Jordan is an avatara of Hanuman". He was then, just a little older than brat #1.

These days, brat #1 talks a lot about Gods and His avataras. I try needling with questions, like: where does God live? if He lives in the clouds, can you see Him from an aeroplane? and so on. She usually has it all figured out: Some Gods like Siva live on earth, and others like Indra live in the clouds. God is smaller than air, and hence one can't see Him, feel Him, or touch Him.


I am convinced that Amar Chitra Kathas have something to do with this firm belief in the abilities of Gods. While, I devoured those comic books as a child; as an adult, I think the English is horribly archaic and complex for a kid, and the story-lines are often too gory. Brat #1 doesn't think so. For her, Super-man, Spider-man, and Bat-man are fictional; but Hanu-man, Lax-man, and Ra-man are real heroes.

All I can say is that Amar Chitra Kathas (translation: Immortal Picture Stories) are here to stay. Even if they use words like "beseeched".