If wounds could speak
I'd be rustling like an autumn tree.
If hurts could swell up,
I'd be wriggling under stones.
As it is, I croon in my dreams
to lighten the cacophony of life.
(c) Max Babi
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Serendipity Synchronicity Intuition -my 10 day course
After a brief talk at M.I.T.-Instt of Design, for a mixed audience, I was pleased to hear from the good professors that I could make a proposal on Serendipity as a topic for a 10 day course as a part of 'Electives' they offer every year. Some 11 students joined up on the first day which was good according to the prof in charge, and I began with my first lecture on 14th Feb -Vaelntine's Day. Spent half a day there, lecturing, recapturing for late joiners, discussing, clarifying and amplifying thoughts. Exchanging anecdotes...
There's something very rejuvenating about dealing with boys and girls who are awkwardly teenagd at heart and physiologically young adults. There's something symbiotic because despite my profusion of wrinkled skin, I carry a young man's heart ( something the cardiologist at my yearly check up told me a few months ago -and a strong heart is a young heart in every sense).
So these were my 'Seven Day Soldiers' whom I handled as gawky young folks fascinated by the nearly magical phenomena of serendipity and synchronicity, and impatient to move ahead into terroritories of intuition and beyond towards sheer ESP... they were very keen, punctual and also very open to thinking up new vistas. Within days they were talking about these terms like veterans, and we all decided to start thinking about the deliverables. A few times I stayed back to talk to them, discuss with smaller groups and give the 'deliverables' some sort of shape.
The last 4 days were electric. They all agreed to make a short film, which may have been 3 minutes or less but I settled for 5 mins min. They didn't like my scipt, wherein I had visualized a young yoga-learning executive lady meeting an old yoga teacher on some railways station waiting for a train and through serendipity discovering their common roots. It was full of jargon and perhaps sounded too pedagogical (this they didn't say, but I felt so).
They wrote their own script and in 3 days flat produced, one of the finest films I have seen in my whole career. It may not be an award winning film but the fact that it took a team of 5-7 youngsters, busy with their own studies and what not, only 3 days to produce a wonderful film -touched me deeply. I think it is worth working upon to make a slightly longer version with sound / dialogue but then that is all open to debate.
I was thus very surprised on the final day when three presentations were made by my group of nearly 10 students... one extra long poster with fabulous graphics, the map of the world stretched out with references to serendipity, synchronicity and intuition...that was very ambitious and very clearly expressed too... then a sort of slide show tracing the history of the word Serendipity, with spoken commentary, focusing on one tale by Hazrat Amir Khusrau who wrote the book Three Princes of Serendip, and finally the film. The students who attended the show went wild, and that in itself was a great compliment to my hard work for ten days.
I look forward to more such openings. Two, unrelated students came and discussed at length
There's something very rejuvenating about dealing with boys and girls who are awkwardly teenagd at heart and physiologically young adults. There's something symbiotic because despite my profusion of wrinkled skin, I carry a young man's heart ( something the cardiologist at my yearly check up told me a few months ago -and a strong heart is a young heart in every sense).
So these were my 'Seven Day Soldiers' whom I handled as gawky young folks fascinated by the nearly magical phenomena of serendipity and synchronicity, and impatient to move ahead into terroritories of intuition and beyond towards sheer ESP... they were very keen, punctual and also very open to thinking up new vistas. Within days they were talking about these terms like veterans, and we all decided to start thinking about the deliverables. A few times I stayed back to talk to them, discuss with smaller groups and give the 'deliverables' some sort of shape.
The last 4 days were electric. They all agreed to make a short film, which may have been 3 minutes or less but I settled for 5 mins min. They didn't like my scipt, wherein I had visualized a young yoga-learning executive lady meeting an old yoga teacher on some railways station waiting for a train and through serendipity discovering their common roots. It was full of jargon and perhaps sounded too pedagogical (this they didn't say, but I felt so).
They wrote their own script and in 3 days flat produced, one of the finest films I have seen in my whole career. It may not be an award winning film but the fact that it took a team of 5-7 youngsters, busy with their own studies and what not, only 3 days to produce a wonderful film -touched me deeply. I think it is worth working upon to make a slightly longer version with sound / dialogue but then that is all open to debate.
I was thus very surprised on the final day when three presentations were made by my group of nearly 10 students... one extra long poster with fabulous graphics, the map of the world stretched out with references to serendipity, synchronicity and intuition...that was very ambitious and very clearly expressed too... then a sort of slide show tracing the history of the word Serendipity, with spoken commentary, focusing on one tale by Hazrat Amir Khusrau who wrote the book Three Princes of Serendip, and finally the film. The students who attended the show went wild, and that in itself was a great compliment to my hard work for ten days.
I look forward to more such openings. Two, unrelated students came and discussed at length
the very fascinating topics of 'Eureka' or 'Aha!' moments, and 'Originality' in the creative processes. That opens up entirely new domains....
More later but soon...
Max
Monday, February 7, 2011
Serendipity
It was under one month ago when I thought of writing a scholarly article on the very fascinating phenomenon, serendipity. This is one of my favourite words -so concurred a fellow writer cum journo, she said I should write a teaser on the article first to see if it could be published. Thus began my newly found passion, and now an intense affair with, Serendipity.
Happy accidents, or finding something seemingly useful when one is searching for something entirely unrelated -are some of the meanings we understand. The internet, the largest and free of cost libarary is full of definitions and discussions on this wonderful topic. Christopher Columbus setting out to find India, ended up on the other side of the world, having discovered Americas. This is the commonest example, known to all of us.
A management research institute, through a bit of serendipitous encounter, agreed thanks to their dynamic director, to have me speak for two hours on a simplified version of my essay. Standing ovation resulted from 200+ MBA aspirants, and a goodish amount of queries followed, not only related to serendipity but even to the creative innovations, patenting processes and IPR etc. Soon, a product design institute asked me over to repeat an abridged version of the talk... as a part of a 5-seminar marathon session of topics that were handpicked from my bag of tricks i.e. advanced materials e.g. advanced ceramics, machineable ceramics, plasma processing, special steels, biomimetics (another blog necessary for that world...) and serendipity.
Yet another liberal arts institute wants me to do the same, but after a few months.
The product design team I referred to earlier, is finalizing a 15 day course on the topic -and it may so happen that I would expand the topic from serendipity to its sistely avatars i.e. synchronicity, intuition, and much more... coursing along a little too close to the ESP areas : however the mysteries of the human mind fascinate me no end. This seems like a wonderful beginning to more focused work on dragging the various gray areas between psychology and parapsychology with science as the locus standii, so that a very wide group of intellectually stimulated persons could pitch right in.
Perhaps a book could result.
More later.
Cheerz!
8th Feb 2011
Happy accidents, or finding something seemingly useful when one is searching for something entirely unrelated -are some of the meanings we understand. The internet, the largest and free of cost libarary is full of definitions and discussions on this wonderful topic. Christopher Columbus setting out to find India, ended up on the other side of the world, having discovered Americas. This is the commonest example, known to all of us.
A management research institute, through a bit of serendipitous encounter, agreed thanks to their dynamic director, to have me speak for two hours on a simplified version of my essay. Standing ovation resulted from 200+ MBA aspirants, and a goodish amount of queries followed, not only related to serendipity but even to the creative innovations, patenting processes and IPR etc. Soon, a product design institute asked me over to repeat an abridged version of the talk... as a part of a 5-seminar marathon session of topics that were handpicked from my bag of tricks i.e. advanced materials e.g. advanced ceramics, machineable ceramics, plasma processing, special steels, biomimetics (another blog necessary for that world...) and serendipity.
Yet another liberal arts institute wants me to do the same, but after a few months.
The product design team I referred to earlier, is finalizing a 15 day course on the topic -and it may so happen that I would expand the topic from serendipity to its sistely avatars i.e. synchronicity, intuition, and much more... coursing along a little too close to the ESP areas : however the mysteries of the human mind fascinate me no end. This seems like a wonderful beginning to more focused work on dragging the various gray areas between psychology and parapsychology with science as the locus standii, so that a very wide group of intellectually stimulated persons could pitch right in.
Perhaps a book could result.
More later.
Cheerz!
8th Feb 2011
At Costa
Yesterday, on 6th February 2011, a gaggle of young and old writers got together at Costa, the new coffee house on Law College Road, smack opposite Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. As usual I was the first to reach, but was mystified whilst looking for others, to feel a light tap on my right shoulder. Pesi was standing behind me, smiling like a Pope on holiday, with his ghostlike hue and that strangely unchanging smile. We sat together and soon June showed up, looking trim and rejuvenated. We decided to go up since there were tiny tables capable of seating no more than 3 or 4 at each. Upstairs it seemed at first less noisy, but we were in for a nasty surprise later on.
This place used to be Rangoli - probably a Maharashtrian cafe that offered cheap South Indian food. I used to deal with a housing finance company long ago, right next door, and taking a break over coffee with snacks was a favourite break in my routine then. Despite good clientele, the place turned seedy over the years and looks like Costa has been here for a while. Anyway, soon we were joined by the ever-smiling Samir Dhurde, who has interacted with me at Pune Jazz Club for some time now. He uploads the presentations there, on the new website, and he is also part of the Outreach programme at IUCAA where he lives and works. He had Kailash with him, a newbie, with a deep and sonorous voice that sounded as if it has been cultured painstakingly. Soon two young ladies joined us, very enthusiastic and eager, Kalyani who said she has been writing for a while, and Rujuta, whose forte seems to be making comments pleasantly, effervescently and with some solid substance.
Pesi was the first to read a short story, that sounded like an excerpt from a longer work. A peep at the printed pages showed he had captioned Chapter : 2, etc., which meant it was a novel, a work in progress. The grand old man of writing, who has had one of his short stories published in the Indian Chicken Soup for the Soul series, was in his element. Crisp, vivid and smooth. He has a very even temperament, which gets reflected in his writing. By this time the ambient noise had climbed by several notches, and he was clearly at unease. Both of us oldies, were straining at our ears to hear what Kalyani or Rujuta, both with amazingly soft voices, were saying.
June is an enthusiastic flash fiction writer and she had a sheaf of papers. She refused to read somehow, so one peace I had to read... one that began and ended with a startling sentence :
"It was 17 degrees. The perfect temperature for a murder...."
Taut, and enticingly mysterious, the piece delivered what it promised in very few words. On applying the same measuring stick to the other pieces she offered, it seemed that she has by now mastered the dark arts of writing brief, succinct and yet succulent prose. Kalyani read one piece, and another piece was read by Kailash. June didn't read any of her peace saying she is not good at reading. I took that with a pinch (several actually) of salt.
Kalyani was the next reader. She read a longish short story written in microscopic letters on her simple Nokia cellphone. We all thought it was miraculous on her part to be able to read it all without a single error! Her story was panoramic in scope, concerning a young girl and her about to be fixed marriage and her many facted life. She read in a hurry, which often happens with people who are not used to reading in public. Her story sounded very down to earth, written more in a journalistic vein that in an artistic or creative frame of mind. Rujuta read a piece that sounded like a poem, but frankly most of the words were lost on me as a horde of youngsters had occupied the next table and they were vying to shout one another down. Then came a very entertaining piece from Kailash who read from his Compaq laptop and who turned out to be more an actor than a writer, more of a playwright than a short story writer. I had to comment on his peace, which was a witty and sharp account of a young couple in love, that it reminded me of the Middle Eastern tradition of Dastaan Goi ( story telling) which involves acting out the parts. He voice was loud enough to drown out the yelling youngsters swarming around us like amplified locusts by now. I had to ask him if he had a playscript in mind... yes and no, was the answer. I think at heart he is an actor who also loves to write his own stuff. Good stuff.
Finally I read my piece " Coming Unstuck" about a collegemate who went through hell because he overreached and panicked at UK whilst doing his Master's in Electrical Engg. All about how I, a very stressed out graduate on the prowl for a good job with a schizophrenic sibling at home, rallied around with Shashi's newly arrived wife Hasu to drag him up back to life. He went on to get the degree from the same place, plus another in Mechanical Engg. and then to US where he had a brilliant career in aviation sector. It was fairly sentimental, humorous and carried the human interest all through. Many positive comments came, so did queries too. With some pleasantries, and a unanimous decision to meet next time at IUCAA thanks to Samir, we parted Yes, he too read out a brief piece, a very poetic series of reflections on life, written at Kochi, where he watched a water body nearby and let his mind go into a freewheeling mode. It was good.
On the whole, the meeting was good, like Pesi told me later. Enjoyable, especially the interaction.
07th Feb 2011 Pune.
This place used to be Rangoli - probably a Maharashtrian cafe that offered cheap South Indian food. I used to deal with a housing finance company long ago, right next door, and taking a break over coffee with snacks was a favourite break in my routine then. Despite good clientele, the place turned seedy over the years and looks like Costa has been here for a while. Anyway, soon we were joined by the ever-smiling Samir Dhurde, who has interacted with me at Pune Jazz Club for some time now. He uploads the presentations there, on the new website, and he is also part of the Outreach programme at IUCAA where he lives and works. He had Kailash with him, a newbie, with a deep and sonorous voice that sounded as if it has been cultured painstakingly. Soon two young ladies joined us, very enthusiastic and eager, Kalyani who said she has been writing for a while, and Rujuta, whose forte seems to be making comments pleasantly, effervescently and with some solid substance.
Pesi was the first to read a short story, that sounded like an excerpt from a longer work. A peep at the printed pages showed he had captioned Chapter : 2, etc., which meant it was a novel, a work in progress. The grand old man of writing, who has had one of his short stories published in the Indian Chicken Soup for the Soul series, was in his element. Crisp, vivid and smooth. He has a very even temperament, which gets reflected in his writing. By this time the ambient noise had climbed by several notches, and he was clearly at unease. Both of us oldies, were straining at our ears to hear what Kalyani or Rujuta, both with amazingly soft voices, were saying.
June is an enthusiastic flash fiction writer and she had a sheaf of papers. She refused to read somehow, so one peace I had to read... one that began and ended with a startling sentence :
"It was 17 degrees. The perfect temperature for a murder...."
Taut, and enticingly mysterious, the piece delivered what it promised in very few words. On applying the same measuring stick to the other pieces she offered, it seemed that she has by now mastered the dark arts of writing brief, succinct and yet succulent prose. Kalyani read one piece, and another piece was read by Kailash. June didn't read any of her peace saying she is not good at reading. I took that with a pinch (several actually) of salt.
Kalyani was the next reader. She read a longish short story written in microscopic letters on her simple Nokia cellphone. We all thought it was miraculous on her part to be able to read it all without a single error! Her story was panoramic in scope, concerning a young girl and her about to be fixed marriage and her many facted life. She read in a hurry, which often happens with people who are not used to reading in public. Her story sounded very down to earth, written more in a journalistic vein that in an artistic or creative frame of mind. Rujuta read a piece that sounded like a poem, but frankly most of the words were lost on me as a horde of youngsters had occupied the next table and they were vying to shout one another down. Then came a very entertaining piece from Kailash who read from his Compaq laptop and who turned out to be more an actor than a writer, more of a playwright than a short story writer. I had to comment on his peace, which was a witty and sharp account of a young couple in love, that it reminded me of the Middle Eastern tradition of Dastaan Goi ( story telling) which involves acting out the parts. He voice was loud enough to drown out the yelling youngsters swarming around us like amplified locusts by now. I had to ask him if he had a playscript in mind... yes and no, was the answer. I think at heart he is an actor who also loves to write his own stuff. Good stuff.
Finally I read my piece " Coming Unstuck" about a collegemate who went through hell because he overreached and panicked at UK whilst doing his Master's in Electrical Engg. All about how I, a very stressed out graduate on the prowl for a good job with a schizophrenic sibling at home, rallied around with Shashi's newly arrived wife Hasu to drag him up back to life. He went on to get the degree from the same place, plus another in Mechanical Engg. and then to US where he had a brilliant career in aviation sector. It was fairly sentimental, humorous and carried the human interest all through. Many positive comments came, so did queries too. With some pleasantries, and a unanimous decision to meet next time at IUCAA thanks to Samir, we parted Yes, he too read out a brief piece, a very poetic series of reflections on life, written at Kochi, where he watched a water body nearby and let his mind go into a freewheeling mode. It was good.
On the whole, the meeting was good, like Pesi told me later. Enjoyable, especially the interaction.
07th Feb 2011 Pune.
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