Monday, May 26, 2008
Woe, and a quest for reasonable explanations
Miracles don't happen, accepted. But what about coincidences, regression to the mean, blind luck, or generally positive randomness? You know, the stuff that makes people believe in miracles. What if they don't seem to be working as well? If things just happen to be one steep descent into the darkness, you think there is something really screwy and sinister, and this tends to make you believe in sabotage and conspiracies.
Now in my coldly moral scheme of things, imagined persecution and miracles both occupy roughly the same place. But somehow social reinforcement and a general optimism places miracles at a higher pedestal with a sincere incentive to believe in it.
That leaves me in a bit of trouble doesn't it? You would call that the optimists curse.
The relentless string of flops, disappointments, shocks, and hurdles would then have to be understood as being part of an even larger randomness, and that I have not given it sufficient time or space to even out. Or maybe, and it is quite possible, this rough patch (if it ever ends) is actually a long overdue 'correction' for all the 'miracles' that have happened before.
So, being a recipient of good fortune in the past comes back to bite as well. Shit!
One way is to not look at the 'fruits of labour' at all, and transform the optimism miracle-belief into a total surrender to its will. Vaishnavism is so damn tempting, just that it would involve Iyengars!
The other option would be to abandon optimism, and endure the great levelling with a Hobbesian resignation. I might be getting it wrong here, but I have a strong suspicion that this quasi-essentialist argument would combine with some amount of reasonable self-pity to drive me to eventually clamor for theothernilu's proposed Bastard Quota. That is way too off my taste, even in the worst of times.
For a self-proclaimed optimist, I do seem to be able to only divine rather nasty options for myself. Could just be the sign of the times. Or probably I just need to go get a life!
PS: Now wait! I might be getting the entire premise wrong. What if there is no 'great levelling'? What if the randomness is not Gaussian, yet not chaotically so, but exhibits a stable Paretian trend? Hmm... I think I need to think about that. Maybe optimism is not that bad after all. Now how do I go about measuring these things?
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Crows
We feed crows every morning, and every time I have set up to take pictures of them eating hot rice like good brahmin ancestors, they never turned up. Too smart to be seen on camera I suppose.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Miscellanea
Priya Venkatesan has become the latest, and best ever to have scuttled another Mrs Pandey draft post. In fact she has absolutely rattled the poor old woman.
Chennai Super Kings are alright, but so far my favourite player has been Piyush Chawla.
I have been out in the sun (briefly) and it is not as hot as it could be. The evenings are splendid.
In three years time when the global film industry goes through another lull, I have an idea that could potentially rake in millions (no, not just betting on it to go through the said slump). BTW for those of you still interested, some of the latest FICCI figures for the Indian E&M industry do not add up, or are terrible typos, or both.
Since I am not into substance abuse, please tell me how else I could give my wit and spirit a 'shot-in-the-arm' that would last a few weeks at-least. I badly need it. Please do not suggest a holiday as I cannot immediately afford one. So whatever you suggest should be feasible within my current work schedule. Thanks.
Labels: Other
