GOD MODE

Voldemort wanted it, Gollum lusted for it, Nicolas Flamel is believed to have created it, yet no one achieved it… immortality! From a powerful wizard to a lowly creature on earth is known to have craved for unlimited life. Was their life so full of joy that they never wanted to die? As a matter of fact these creatures are known to have led the worst form of life- lurking in darkness. So why don’t the rather die when their time comes but want to live forever? Well… I don’t know! Even in a video game, the developer keeps open a “God Mode” option- where you never die how many ever times you get shot at. Why is this done? To satisfy a few gamers for whom dying even in a game is inconceivable, who want an easy way out.

There is nothing new about this concept. In fact, from time unknown humans have tried to unravel the secret of immortality. Even few scriptures talk about this. For example, In Hinduism, it is said that the votary of Sri Rudram attains immortality; The Kaballah religion has the tree of life for immortality. In fact all the religions have an indirect provision for immortality, at least of the soul. Christianity and Islam talk of a kind of Purgatory which “cleanses” a soul before it can reach heaven and live forever. So it is known humanity has been trying to cling on to its dear life.

I have an interesting point to tell here. The first time I saw Harry Potter, I thought, like many other, Nicolas Flamel was just a fictitious magician. In fact I even had a negative impression on the character as he had tried to achieve immortality, an immature trait according to me. But recently I came to know Flamel has actually been a great guy. A philanthropist, a wonderful alchemist, great philosopher and most of all- the brilliant mind behind the discovery of the philosopher’s stone! Flamel is believed to have laid hands on an ancient book written by Abraham the Jew. Fighting to understand the contents, he spent over 21 years to unravel the secrets. It is said that Flamel first converted half a pound of mercury into silver, then progressing to convert it into gold then finally unraveling the secret method of producing the philosopher’s stone- elxir of life itself! As always, great knowledge comes only to great men. He is said to never have improved his modest state of living. Instead, he and his wife started helping the poor and the needy with the money they made. It is said, Flamel and his wife, in their own rights, attained salvation. At the age of around eighty it is said that Flamel performed the last rites of his wife and subsequently, resting in peace himself. News of his secret methods to make gold spread and men from all over came and ravaged his house after this death for traces of the powder, but to no avail. Like us now, many then pondered, how can a man who discovered the philosopher’s stone die? So then his tomb was dug out. And what did they find there? Nothing! It was empty. And so people allege, to this day Flamel is alive. Surprisingly it is said Flamel, along with his wife set out to India, very much in their physical form, after a sham funeral. According to Flamel, Indians are supposed to be the initiates of his field of study. (By the way, if any of you feel I am writing rubbish on my own, please refer Magicians, Seers, and Mystics by Reginald Merton for confirmation).

The point I wanted to make is, immortality is not unachievable. Achieve it, just as our respective religions tell us. Understand the meaning when Hinduism says “you will be immortal if you recite rudram” and Christianity says “men with good deeds will be blessed with immortality”. What they essentially mean is immortality, not in its physical form, but in a way your name will be remembered forever.

The same applies to our grief over the death of our near and dear ones. If they had led a good life, their names will be remembered forever in their families and society. They are immortal in their own way. Again to recollect what I saw from the play “Athithi” (the previous blog), the story has a great message. Lets us take for example, when a 3 year old loses its toy, it cries. The father doesn’t, he console the child. If someone asks he says, “what to do, it is just a child. It is not matured enough to understand it is just a toy”. But when his own father dies, he starts crying like his 3 year old son. The play tells us, the child needs maturity to come over the grief of its toy. Similarly the father needs the maturity required for his age to overcome the grief of death.

I hope this blog helps all of you, who like me have the most loveable and wonderful grandparents on earth- who are on the brink of their lives, or anyone else for that matter. As my favourite author RK Narayan puts it, old age is nothing to be felt sad for. It is like a big bungalow in the night, whose lights are slowly being put off one by one. So do not be sad… these people live amongst us forever!

Athithi- A tale without a twist

Last week I had the opportunity to witness a play, a play which had meaning, a play which did not merely make me laugh, but which made me introspect. The play by a troupe who call themselves "Dummies Drama" clearly depict their humilty through their name. With amazing actors, wonderful coordinators, beautiful musicians, splendid directors and most of all a breath-taking script writer, the name "dummies" is to be passed on as a joke. As soon as we think of Dramas in this part of the world, our mind can think of a handful of people- Crazy Mohan, Evam, Y.Gee Mahendran or at the least, S.Ve.Shekar. Greats like Cho were of the past and that era has passed. Most of the plays, while catering very specifically to the humor quotient, faced extinction with the advent of Cinema. But here comes a troupe, which has the guts to stand the test- giving plays with heavy scripts, mature thoughts, of course, blended in humor. Can philosophy be successfully expressed through a drama? The question was not just answered, but answered with style! The play, titled "Athithi" might give us the idea it is something to do with treating guests. But it speaks a lot more. A great deal of philosophical questions soaked in the script, disguised the form of a story and narrated with wit.

Outline

The play starts with a young man (Aditya), on his way to commit suicide citing a love failure, enters the house of Shankaran after his car meets a wreckage. Shankaran is the lone inhabitant of a house in a deserted village. Shankaran practices the great trait of "Athithi Devo Bhava" (Treating a guest who arrives without notice is on par with serving god). Aditya tells shankaran about his problems and why he has decided to end his life. Shankaran, with his composed coolness rubbishess of Aditya's immaturity and infuses serenity in him in due course. Attaining a fresh calmness of mind, Aditya decides to stay in the deserted place for a little while more.

In the subsequent scenes, an industrialist (Ramprakash)- a typical go-getter enters the house along with his wife and a politician (Vaithi) and tries to evict Shankaran from the place which has been home to him for more than 50 years. He has a plan of building an engineering college for his only son. Shankaran refuses and the industrialist threatens. He starts his construction work without the consencus of the owner of the place (Shankaran) with his engineer (Shekar).

Shekar, a god fearing man knows that Ramprakash has given him the project, not just because he is talented but because he is in dire need of money and hence cannot bargain much. Having no option left, he sides with Ramprakash and tries to convince Shankaran to evict.

The youngster, equally disturbed by the developments tries to convince shankaran, along with shekar not to mess with powerful people and vacate the place and reap money out of the deal. Shankaran tells aditya "why do you have to stay here and suffer with me? you carry on and live in peace". But before exiting, he turns back and tells "But if you have decided to stay with me, leave all your fears and relax. When you have imposed faith in me I will not let you down". The impact of this, we realize in the climax.

The next scene is one of the two outstanding scenes in the play. The next day, shekar comes and talks to aditya and asks him to try and make Shankaran understand the situation and vacate. Shankaran enters. He discourses with ease, to Shekar and Aditya, explaining about fear, faith and confidence. Drawing fine lines of distinction, he tells Shekar "When you are in fear, you show more faith, but when you become confident, your faith comes down. True faith should be beyond fear and confidence". After a session of breathtaking dialogues, Shekar decides to change sides. He changes the plan and decides to build the college around Shankaran's house, without disturbing him. In a few minutes of Shekar's revelation, Aditya too comes to know that he is blessed with a new lease of life. He hears the news that the day he arrived at Shankaran's home, there was a great accident at his office, killing hundreds of people. He realizes, if he had stayed in office he would have died and if he had not met Shankaran also, he would have committed suicide and died.

shankaran councelling the young boy

The next day Ramprakash comes in with an ill-mood, after facing a severe loss in business. On seeing the changed plan, he fumes. Losing his cool, shouts at everyone and violently threatens Shankaran. Just when he goes a bit overboard, his wife brings him the dreaded news- his son's death. The son for whom the entire college was being built. The scene closes with Ramprakash rattled, shaken and fainting.

All the men depart from Shankaran's house and go their respective ways. Shekar, after a few days meets Aditya, who is now promoted in his organization. Aditya tells Shekar even after a thorough search, he is unable to locate Shankaran's house. Shekar, then meets Ramprakash and tells him that neither he, aditya nor the politcian was able to locate Shankaran's house again. He tells Ramprakash that his ill deeds have brought him to this state. Ramprakash, disturbed by the statment tries and finds Shankaran's house after a struggle. He calls out for Shankaran. With a splendid and awe-inspiring saffron attire, Shankaran comes out with his usual serene smile.


Now starts the climax- The peak of the play. Ramprakash converses with Shankaran and asks him why did his son have to be punished for his ill-deeds. Shankaran asks, "who says your son was punished? why do you think dying is punishment? infact, dont you think living is punishment and dying is salvation?". Perplexed, Ramprakash continues, "I stopped believing in god, If he were true, then Shekar would have been the richest now, and Vaithi (the politician) would have become the Prime Minister! Since they are ardent believers!" Shankaran clarifies, "Praying to god is not believing. Merely construction temples is not doing service. Constructing temples was his profession, nothing else. True faith lies above all this. Having complete faith that god is the person who sent us here and come what may, he is going to be on my side is what is true faith". Shankaran continues, "Do u realize, Aditya came to my house as an athithi, without any expectation. Hence, he left with peace with what he got. But you came here and tried to own everything! the greed made you blind, so when you lose what you wanted badly you feel dejected. By my house, I also mean the earth. Come to this earth as an athithi, a guest. Do not expect anything, do not try to own everything, come as an athithi, live as an athithi for 50-60 years and depart as an athithi and peace will be bestowed upon you". Standing in front of Ramprakash he says, "Why do you people keep saying you do not believe in god? If he is away you say you cant see, if he is near you say you cant see... even if he is in front of you..." Ramprakash stands stunned. Shankaran proceeds inside and Ramprakash stops him and asks "Who are you? Tell the truth". Shankaran turns, smiles and says "Iam Shankaran. Iam a friend of all on earth, and those who do not believe in me, Iam still a friend".

My Views

The play as such is a simple one. In my opinion, there lies its success. All men think, but few can put it into good form. The script has made sure it reaches to all audience. It would have been very easy to make this concept complicated and making the audience snore. Keeping it simple made the trick.

The director tries to tell the audience- We are all guests of god in this world. Come, live, be happy, do not expect anything, be content with what you have and depart as a guest would do, as you are going to take back anything. A great concept told in an absolutely simple manner. Few of the dialogues are mindblowing. One dialogue of shankaran which struck a chord in me- "...Rig Veda tells, we cry at the time of our birth but the people around us smile with happiness, but when we depart, we should depart with a smile but the people around us should cry with grief".

The highlight of the play are two people. One is Shankaran and the other is the politician. Though I have not said much in the story line about him, in my opinion he is the best in the troup. In the last scene when Shankaran enters with his saffron attire and discourses, believe me, there were a few people who joint their hands in prayer. Such was the life infused in the character. Watch it to experience it. And the politician... by god, he is the wittiest person! with his amazing sense of timing and great body language he makes the roof split with people laughing whenever he opens his mouth. His facial expressions are unbelievably comical. Very few people would notice, but when the dialogues are being said by others, vaithi does a lot of monkey work with others on the stage. A great sense of humour the man has. Ramprakash's wife does a great job too. Truly, an extra-ordinary job, infusing amazing humour in such a deep theme. Not being shadowed by the main characters, she delivers the goods by acting the typical headstrong and socially active wife of a rich man. Great job overall by the dummies.

I should make a special mention of the music. It has been composed with such precision to suit the theme. When shankaran talks with the lights dimming, the effect it produces on the audience with its mytic theme is simply superb. Kudos to the music director. Equally commendable are the light effects. Dimming them when Shankaran delivers a punch line gave a great effect.

With just 5 characters and a couple of sets, the play could achieve what it wanted to communicate. The actors (especially Shankaran and the politician) showed they had every talent which a mainstream actor would possess- body language, timing, expression, etc...Hats off to the entire troupe. With the script being so gripping, the acting was an icing on the cake. And the music, well... a cherry on the icing!

The play dwells strongly on questions of faith. I would recommend all you open minded atheists to go and watch this. I would not say the play will be strong enough to change your perception, but atleast, you will have yet another ground to debate on!

It was a pleasure to view such a play. Amidst all the masala movies we watch, the drama gives us a refreshingly new experience- a positive experience. It actually "felt" good to watch the play and to grasp its philosophies. With more such plays, Chennai dramas are sure to get a face lift!

Mathemagician

England had Newton, France had Cauchy, Switzerland had Euler and Bernoulli, even Prussia had Jacobi. Who did India have? God answered this question with Srinivasa Ramanujan. After all the land that produced Aryabhatta and Bhaskaracharya and gave birth to Zero needed someone to represent its achievement in modern mathematics.

There is no necessity to talk about this genius’ contribution to mathematics in the fields of elliptic functions, number theory and “mock” theta functions. The world knows it. What is more important is to understand a bit about the man himself. I wanted to share what I learnt from reading the life of this great human being.

First, Ramanujan, like many other great men who are a part of the “rags-to-riches” league, has set in me a great source of inspiration. At a point of time when he failed miserably in his BA and did not have the capability to eat one proper meal a day, he did not lose hope. Instead worked hard on his skills (mathematics) and went around hawking his wares like a salesman, desperately trying for a break. Then when the break came in the form of GH Hardy, the English mathematician, there was nothing stopping Ramanujan. He would go on to reach the pinnacle of success, bringing pride and glory to the whole nation.

Second and the most interesting thing about this man was his character. Amidst all the adulation, he would be unruffled. His innocent self, always humble. His faith in the almighty was unshakeable. Even when he was almost in his deathbed in England with TB, due to lack of proper food and overworking, he would not touch meat. He chose death over forgoing his principles. Never once he failed to perform the rituals as a Brahmin every morning. A man, who wanted to live by his principles, proving the fact that adversity is the touchstone of character.

It is interesting to note his connection with Hardy. Hardy was a man who was a pure atheist in every sense of the word. He was a rational man and had his own reasons, not out of frustration like many atheists, but “scientific” reasons he thought fit. The Hardy-Ramanujan team was like a blind man and a man without legs. Both depended on the other for the path-breaking discoveries they made. These equations- a result of an atheist and a staunch believer would be called my Ramanujan as “an equation for me has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of god”. As they say, truly, mysterious are the ways of god!

We know Cauchy was a man who, forever tried to convert other mathematicians to Roman Catholicism. As few would say he tried mystical methods of representing god in mathematics. Ramanujan would do that for Hinduism. For example, Ramanujan would tell his friend the expression (2^n)-1 represented primordial god and several divinities. When n is replaced by 0, the result is 0. 0- representing nothingness, or as Hindu religion perceives “Parabrahmam”. Now when n is replaced with 1, the result is 1. 1- representing singularity or ekam- the core of Advaita Vedanta. When n=2, the expression results in 3, denoting trinity; when n=3, the expression results in 7, denoting the Saptarishis and so on.

If a man, who struggled to get a day’s meal could rise up to be the face of the nation with postal stamps printed in his honour, would never once in his life give up his principles and faith in god for any reason, would prove to the world what a meek south Indian’s capabilities were, then that man would be my source of inspiration. Srinivasa Ramanujan- not just a great mathematician, but the man, who really knew infinity!

Are we all on TV?

(Everything I have written here is just my own imagination)

American idol, Survivor, Big brother. What are all these? These are the most sensational reality TV shows with the top TRP ratings in the television industry. In fact replicas have been brought to India like Indian Idol, big boss, etc…. And no doubt these enjoy great TRP ratings in India too. Our traditional soap operas are facing a big challenge from these reality TV shows. In fact except India, in all other countries reality shows fare better than soap operas. Ok, so now it’s a known fact that reality TV shows are the most popular form of entertainment. Moving on further…

My doubt:

Let us take the concept of aliens. If we take any movie made on aliens or any book, the creators description of the all the aliens in that particular movie or book is more or less the same. The creature will have a broad/ small face with large eyes with two antennas pointing on top of the head or a halo like disc above its forehead, a green/ grayish coloured skin with green gooie blood pouring out when shot. These are some of the common descriptions used to depict an alien.

Let us take earth. What a lot of contrasts we find here! From the fair skinned Americans, flat nosed Asians, well built Germans, then Indians. And even in Indians, as we move down the country from north to south the colour and features change drastically! The kind of animals existing in each country, the birds, trees, plants, etc…. What contrasts! What amazing changes we find across the globe! Don’t we find it so interesting to travel across the globe and know about other cultures and people? So why is there such a huge contrast in earth and not in other planets?

My assumption:

Let us assume far away in our solar system there is planet, say planet X with a very advanced civilization, much more intelligent than us. Earth takes 24 hrs to complete one rotation and so let us assume this is a much bigger planet and this takes 1440 hours to complete one rotation. So one day of earth time will be one minute for planet X. Now imagining millions of years back this civilization’s population, being a very advanced civilization works very hard and hence need their share of quality entertainment. How much ever we go to discs and pubs and other places half an hour of TV will be there in every person’s life.

Now, let us say all their TV shows started to bore them and people were very upset with the quality of their planet’s TV shows. So they started demanding for a revamp of TV shows. So they started making plans for a brand new TV show, something never attempted by anyone before! Being the most advances civilization they had complete knowledge about other planets. So they went around to different planets in the galaxy to pick up “participants” for their new TV show. They went to a planet filled with flat nosed people, with silky hair and velvety skin. Picked up a few million people from there and then moved on to the next planet. This one had a well built able bodied population with blonde hair and blue/ black eyes with a stern look on their faces. The men from planet X picked up a few million from here and moved on to the next planet. Like this they picked up an assortment of living creatures and took them for audition. But then they had different plans which these creatures from different planets did not know. The men from planet X erased the memories of all these creatures and put them on a planet far away from planet X, i.e. earth! From here, they would capture in giant cameras the everyday lives of these creatures from different planets living together in one planet.

So where do they place the cameras and shoot?

We all know mars has two moons- Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Terror in Greek). Way back in 1966, an American astronomer Carl Sagan and a Russian scientist Schlovsky conducted some experiments. Phobos and Deimos are the only two satellites in the solar system that revolves around the mother planet faster than the rotation of the planet. Phobos completes two orbits in one Martian day. Deimos is only a little faster than the planet’s rotation. They also made certain other studies and considering this unnatural acceleration and various other factors they said that Phobos is a hollow satellite. All of us know a hollow satellite can never be natural! So let us assume that Phobos is not simply Mar’s moon.

Keeping this in mind let us assume Phobos is actually a camera placed by Planet X disguised as a satellite so that the earthlings don’t doubt anything. So even if Phobos shoots a day’s activity of any part of earth Planet X has half an hour worth of reality show to watch per day! So imagine a day’s shooting of every city in earth! Quality TV show for planet X!

So what happens now if one fine day Planet X gets bored with their reality TV show and their costs start shooting up? What if they decide to abandon the project? Or worse, what happens if we living in earth get back our old memories and remember our mother planet? Whoa! What a lot of chaos that would cause!

Anyway, its eleven forty five in the night now. If I write more ill get more of these weird ideas. So ill end this crappy sci-fi story here!

Credits:

Ragav - Concept & Script

Iyer - Solving a complex equation and arriving at planet X's rotation time

Priceless Polyhedrons

The pyramids- the fascinating polyhedrons. They are buildings with triangular surfaces which converge at the top. As soon as the word pyramid is mentioned our minds go to Egypt. Have we ever thought of other pyramids in this world? What about the south American pyramidal temples, pyramids of Greece, France, Rome? Forget all those… What about our own Indian temple gopuras? Are they not pyramids too?

The Great Pyramid, Egypt

Brihadeesvarar Temple, India

Mayan Pyramid, Mexico

I do not know, but I am a bit curious how could all these important historic buildings be of the same shape? They are all geographically spread widely, thousands of miles away from each other. How did these marvelous engineers of the past get the same ideas, that too living in completely different continents and cultures? There was literally no mode of communication in those times. How did the ideas get shared? Mind boggling!

Now the next question- simple but unanswered- How was it possible to build these? How was it possible to move the massive blocks of stones over such phenomenal heights? There is no recorded history in any form which gives an account how the pyramids were built. There are various hypothetical methods suggested, but till date our so called modern civilization has no clue how it was built. The Egyptian ancestors did not have any heavy machinery. Forget machinery, even iron was not available those days. The first ever iron smelting was done around 1800-1200 BC in some part of India. The only materials available were stone and wood! Indian history is very rich. Nonetheless, just look at this Egyptian culture, after so many years of scientific research we are not able to figure out their civilization! There are scientists who study their civilization as a profession! They are called Egyptologists! No other civilization has this sort of an enigma around it.

Let us take the case of the great pyramid of Giza. The first thing and the crudest thing that comes to our mind when we think of mounting such huge quarries should be the pulley. But the pulley was invented by Archimedes who was born in 287 A.D. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around 2560 B.C, meaning it was built 2200 years before the pulley was even thought of. So what other method did they use? Our modern engineers, with a bit of help from the historians’ records keep spiraling towards the same theory of ramps and levers being used to build the pyramids. With 160,000 men working on the project every day, the Egyptians could finish it in 20 years. Is it possible to have used the traditional “heave-ho” method to push up quarries over ramps in such short time? A Japanese corporation conducted an experiment and proved that 18 men could drag blocks weighing 2.5 tons over an inclined ramp at the rate of 18 meters per minute. Moreover, the pyramids have blocks weighing 15-70 tons too! What is the answer for this? So the mystery remains.

One interesting theory comes to my mind while talking about this. Erich Von Daniken in one of his books gives another theory. It may not be taken seriously but the thought process is appreciable. Take the case of earth, with its gravitational force. A person weighing average 60 kg is able to stand on the ground. Take the case of moon. Say its gravitational force is 20 times lesser than earth, meaning a man has to weigh 20 times more to stay put on the ground. That is around 1200 Kgs. What if there were men from far away planets having 100 times lesser gravitational force? They’ll weigh 100 times more than earthlings! Imagine a 6000 or 60,000 Kg man! With huge limbs! Wont he easily carry the stone quarries and build the pyramid if he was on earth?

As we all have been told by our history teachers in school, the pyramids were just tombs for the rulers. Are we so naïve to believe that a building with so many intricacies in it was just a burial ground? There are hundreds of mysteries surrounding these structures. One thing which fascinates me is that how did the king select the location of the great pyramid? Leave aside questions like how did he lay the foundation on fine sand? How did he level such a vast land area? They will remain mysteries forever. But the great pyramid lies exactly on the face of the earth- on the centre of gravity, dividing the entire land area into equal halves!

Want another interesting snippet? These are the dimensions of the great pyramid

Height- 146.515 m

Base – 230.363 m

Slant height – 186.369 m

Now divide the slant height by half of the base i.e 186.369/115.182. What do you get? 1.6180! The Golden Ratio! (remember reading about Phidias in history or something called "Phi" (φ) in mathematics? φ=1.6180) Gosh, each mystery takes us into further mysteries! To write about golden ratio I would need another blog. Anyway to give an idea golden ratio is a mathematical constant which has been a mystery for the past 2400 years, something like our very own Pi. Some people say certain parts of our body are in the proportion of golden ratio. There are hundreds of historical buildings and paintings which mysteriously incorporate the golden ratio in them.

Do not think I am leading you nowhere with all these facts, I was just trying to hit a correlation between the pyramids placement, its structure with the golden ratio. An experiment conducted years back proved that perishable items kept inside a pyramidal shape is resistant to spoilage. So if we connect the fact that some part of our body is in golden ratio, the great pyramid’s structure is in golden ratio, do we get an answer to the Egyptian mummies? Dead bodies rolled in linen kept fresh for over 2 millennia!

In effect, the great pyramid lies on the face of the earth challenging the so called intelligent man of the 21st century to understand it! It is not just the pyramid. The pyramid was just an example. But there are hundreds of facts of the past to be unearthed and understood. Like I asked how was the pyramid built? How did civilizations across the world get the same shape done with no means of communication? Was there someone above us controlling everything? Who gave the undeveloped civilizations know-how when we at present with heavy machinery and technology are not able to figure it out? Who guided the constructions? Does it mean there was someone with much advanced knowledge 3000 years back which we still do not possess? Are these people even from earth? Who knows even Daniken’s weird theory might be true!

Questions, questions and more questions. No answers but! Let us see if we figure it out. After all history is not just a study of the past. They are the gateway to the future right?

“Magic” in Berijam

Kodaikanal- The Switzerland of an average Indian. Located some 7000 ft. above sea level, this beautiful town is one of the most sought after destination during summer. Pleasant weather, appealing landscape and most importantly, affordable. What more can a regular man ask for. During the peak season (April to June), it is believed that the tourist population exceeds the home population.

Near this town is one of those places which not every tourist would see. Some 7100 ft above sea level on the Palani hills lies in isolation, the breathtaking, man made Berijam lake. Access to this spot is restricted and controlled by the government. Prior permission is required to enter this place.

The Berijam Lake

So what is so special about this place that has got it this special status? They say the surrounding has a variety of fauna to be protected. I don’t buy this reason. The area is home to animals like bison, langur, deers, etc… These are not endangered species, then why restrict the area? Another reason they give is this lake is a water source a town nearby- Periyakulam town. What do they mean? The Berijam was made a restricted area only recently. Few years back it was open to all. Didn't the residents of Periyakulam drink water those days? I don’t get their point. But there’s one thing lingering in my mind… may be there’s a third reason, a reason not told to all but left to the understanding of those who can sense it- The Magic Mushrooms! How many of the 32,000 people in Kodaikanal know about these little mushrooms? I am sure it should be less than 5%. How many tourists who come to Kodai know about these mushrooms? Should be even lower.

The magic mushroom

These mushrooms are supposed to be nature’s answer to the king of the psychedelic drugs- Lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD as it is popularly known. On consumption, these mushrooms give you the same hallucinating effect which LSD gives, but in a “natural” manner or so to say, we are talking about a “herbal” psychedelic drug. The psilocybin contained in the mushroom gives it it’s hallucinating effect. An investigative journalist, Peter Gorman on his visit to Kodai asked the lady who sold to him, how many mushrooms to eat in order to get a high. The lady replies “Take three and enjoy the countryside, take six and talk with Shiva”. This shows the kind of hallucination it effects on a person. These do not grow in many places. Apart from Mexico and parts of Australia, the shola forest surrounding the berijam is the only home to magic mushrooms in India. On my visit to the Berijam last year I found nothing very “sacred” about the place to be preserved. It was a beautiful place mainly because there were no people around, otherwise it’s a very normal tourist spot. So my take is that the government wants to close the gates to people from consuming this illegal mushroom. Why else would a place which was open to all, get classified as a restricted area one fine day?

It’s the right thing to give this psilocybin mushroom a low profile and restrict access to it so as to keep it away from the common man’s hand. Otherwise, Berijam would be filled with hippies listening to The Beatles doping away to glory in their artificial heaven. But think of what we might be missing. The psilocybin has some amazing qualities. They are the only known cure (though not clinically proven) for diseases like cluster head-aches and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Do not confuse cluster head-aches with migraine. Cluster head-aches are less common but the effects are higher than migraine. The pain is excruciating, especially behind the eye. Patients say the pain is like tearing the eyelids and poking the eye balls with an ice pick, ripping off the forehead portion. Experts say this is the most severe pain known to medical science. There are medicines that reduce the cycle of this head-ache but psilocybin is known to put a stop to it when taken in the right conditions and right dosage.

How a cluster head-ache feels like

So why shouldn’t the government try and do a research on these mushrooms? Maybe it has more medicinal values than we know! If we can make medicines for rare diseases with these mushrooms, apart curing providing cure, we can also add some revenue to our economy by exporting medicines. The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University already has a research institute in the Berijam. Why don’t they try and find out more about these mushrooms than just locking them inside? After all R&D is the only way to boost the growth of any economy. I do not think our red taped government personnel will ever think of researching much, let alone the magic mushrooms. To think of it, the world is filled with lots and lots of amazing things, sometimes very close to us. Our eyes are too busy seeing the regular stuff that it misses these little wonders of nature.

(By the way, to all the dopies who come across this post- Please DO NOT go snooping for the mushrooms in Kodai. I've heard that the police have spies all around the place. Psilocybin Mushrooms are illegal and banned. If the cops pick you with a mushroom they will beat you up black and blue. Also, if you do not know to pick, you will end up picking poisonous mushrooms. Berijam is full of poisonous look alikes.)

Large Hadron Collider… Large failure

Continuing with my first theme on the existence god let me put a question which has baffled me since the time I was a kid. We all have heard stories from our grandparents about the creation of the universe. One of the Hindu mythology talks about the earth/universe being a by-product of the churning of the heavens by the angels and demons to retrieve the elixir of life. Christian mythology talks about Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, to some extent the same story continues in the Islamic story of creation and so forth to other religious beliefs. All these mythologies written so many hundreds of years ago talk of the same thing- the world being created by god, either directly or indirectly.

So the obvious question here is who created god? My granny told me “no one can create the creator! There is no beginning or end for him!” easy answer right? She might have bought that answer. I for sure wouldn’t buy that. So what exactly happened?

Here’s where I learnt about the big bang. The “theory” behind the creation of the universe, one of those theories by the intellectual lot which angers the church. But of course, when we were totally clueless about the story of creation, men like Georges Lemaître have actually helped with their rational thinking. But remember, big bang is still just a theory! It’s just the only one well supported theory we have as of today. So we have no option but to go by this.

Now to think about it big bang tells us that the universe begun as an extremely small and immensely hot and very dense particle (also known as the god particle or the higgs particle) which exploded, cooled and ever since has been expanding. According to experts before this particle there was nothing called space in the cosmos. So where did this particle come from? No one knows. But at-least, the scientists at the CERN tried to understand this much and started creating the Large Hadron Collider or LHC. The LHC tries to simulate a “mini big bang” to see what it was when the god particle exploded. Myself, like many was looking forward to this whole hyped-up experiment. As this was the one event which could try to give explanation on the story of creation.

We all know what has happened with the LHC now. It’s passed as a joke as of now. Within two weeks of its start, a helium leak force stopped the whole experiment. A time for celebration for the theists begins. The helium leak is interpreted as a "Divine intervention" by them. After all they say, “you are a creation of god. Trying to get into his shoes is dangerous”. Well, I maybe a strong believer, but I would surely want the experiment to come out with some answers. One good point I heard from my friend comes to my mind now- “If god really created you do you think he would give you the power to understand him and get into his shoes? Once you understand there’s no point in him being there” nice point.

Anyways, its 1-0 favoring the theists now. Let’s see what science comes up with next! Till then my question of what was the starting point of everything will remain unanswered.