Of fractals and grad student life!
One of my roommates..lets call him turbulence for it reflects both his research and his random behaviour ( I enjoy it!!) most of the times, made this interesting observation.
It all started in the morning when I was sitting on my throne and having ambrosia (well,I mean I was having tea in the morning!) . Instinctively, I went to my couch and he reached for the corner of the long couch..just like everyday. Thats when he made the remark of how monotonos our lives had become..Everyday MEMS (my other roomate) alarm rings, turbulence gets up, gets ready..wakes me up if Iam still asleep and then the alarm rings again and then MEMS gets up and we all meet for five minutes..they make some comment mostly ridiculing me and then we head off to our offices...turbulence first , followed by me or mems.
We work, turbulence comes home at 6.30, then MEMS and finally me, unless we are cooking on that day. We prepare dinner and by 9.00 we are off again to offices/labs. turbulence come again at 10.30/ 11.00 goes to bed. Me or MEMS come a little later.Usually by 1.00 and we go to bed. There ends one day.Repeat this five times and lo! you have friday evening. We get a movie, watch and sleep early that day, wake up a little late on sat. and still repeat the routine religiously.
Point in all this is, on a gross level, everything is mundane and repetitious. Zoom out and you will find the routine I described to be like a fractal. Zoom out to an year and may be a decade and compare it to an average person and its all the same. How different are our lives as compared to billions others, may be a little different in little detail but at a gross level its all the same.. we all have the same worries, concerns, and feelings.
I think all we are all free from this monotonicity as children. We played whenever we wanted, slept, cried, laughed, did stupid things just for the heck of it..in essence we were free. And gradually as the years progressed, we tie ourselves in knots..trying to be successful (be that in pursuit of money, education or fame). We want to be 'something' and for that we think we should do' something' and what starts off as a small practice becomes an established habit and is difficult to get out of...Just like fractals; A small difference in microstructure somewhere shows up as an entirely different shape after 'n' repetitions. While most of the time we dont realise this, there are obviously eureka times where we find the repetition boring and yearn for something new. May be its time for us to get back to childhood...stop trying to be something/someone and just let things flow and keep doing the best every moment, enjoying the life now rather than saving the happiness for the times 'after achieving that goal'(ever elusive!)
Yet, dreams and hope are like two wings of a bird called man. Without either of them we are wingless birds.
It all started in the morning when I was sitting on my throne and having ambrosia (well,I mean I was having tea in the morning!) . Instinctively, I went to my couch and he reached for the corner of the long couch..just like everyday. Thats when he made the remark of how monotonos our lives had become..Everyday MEMS (my other roomate) alarm rings, turbulence gets up, gets ready..wakes me up if Iam still asleep and then the alarm rings again and then MEMS gets up and we all meet for five minutes..they make some comment mostly ridiculing me and then we head off to our offices...turbulence first , followed by me or mems.
We work, turbulence comes home at 6.30, then MEMS and finally me, unless we are cooking on that day. We prepare dinner and by 9.00 we are off again to offices/labs. turbulence come again at 10.30/ 11.00 goes to bed. Me or MEMS come a little later.Usually by 1.00 and we go to bed. There ends one day.Repeat this five times and lo! you have friday evening. We get a movie, watch and sleep early that day, wake up a little late on sat. and still repeat the routine religiously.
Point in all this is, on a gross level, everything is mundane and repetitious. Zoom out and you will find the routine I described to be like a fractal. Zoom out to an year and may be a decade and compare it to an average person and its all the same. How different are our lives as compared to billions others, may be a little different in little detail but at a gross level its all the same.. we all have the same worries, concerns, and feelings.
I think all we are all free from this monotonicity as children. We played whenever we wanted, slept, cried, laughed, did stupid things just for the heck of it..in essence we were free. And gradually as the years progressed, we tie ourselves in knots..trying to be successful (be that in pursuit of money, education or fame). We want to be 'something' and for that we think we should do' something' and what starts off as a small practice becomes an established habit and is difficult to get out of...Just like fractals; A small difference in microstructure somewhere shows up as an entirely different shape after 'n' repetitions. While most of the time we dont realise this, there are obviously eureka times where we find the repetition boring and yearn for something new. May be its time for us to get back to childhood...stop trying to be something/someone and just let things flow and keep doing the best every moment, enjoying the life now rather than saving the happiness for the times 'after achieving that goal'(ever elusive!)
Yet, dreams and hope are like two wings of a bird called man. Without either of them we are wingless birds.
posted by atma_tripta at 4:35 PM
6 Comments:
Atma, Been there, felt that... Cant be more in agreement with you... I am stocking up on indoor games this winter.... The Carrom's there and Pictionary's making an appearance at my place.. When u feel like doodling, u know where to find the game..
BAL
Could you imagine having an exciting and dynamic life.. where you do not know whats going to happen next?
You would probably pine for this life then !! Or maybe not.. who knows!
Isnt that the way life is though? The grass is always greener on the other side!!!
Stagnation as a hindi song goes is death(mera joota hai japani..). The essential characteristic of life is change...for what is death but absence of change?
May be its all in the state of the mind than in the situations themselves. We choose how to react to them!
And I think its like the injury to hand or foot...it always seems that the same injury on the other(hand or foot) would have been more manageable!! or like eternal debates between winter and summer...
@AT: I am completely lost with what you are trying to say here :( Too convulted for me!! Btw what has that song got to do with stagnation?
"Too convoluted " :) Not very uncommon with me! All I was trying to say is these two things:
1. May be the way things look to us is more dependent on the way we look at them than the way they actually are. I mean, same thing could appear in totally different ways depending on what our mood is.
2. I was agreeing with BAL. Just meant to say that grass always seems to be greener on the other side.
Regarding the song, there is a line that says: chalna jindagi ki kahani, rukna maut ki nishani..
talk of making things sound complicated..Iam sure I will be there :))
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