Cycling Trip by the Donau in a Parellel Universe

The whim silently became surreal that day 

thanks to the great grey-white river;

something like fairies whimsically out on a weekend flying trip
out of nowhere finding paradise.

The clouds and chill started by teasing, soon became friends,
the rented cycles beneath us became little chariots,
while the whole scene covered in pure misty spray
conspired to become heavenly.

We willingly became part of the kind river,
flowing along with it, along with giant freight-boats
slowly flowing with their men,
along with the trees and shrubs,
wet earth and road and fallen white leaves,
along with the tiny sheds, the clockwork dam,
pretty houses and the glorious castle on the way,
tinily drinking in the kindness surrounding us

so that soon enough,
laughter and beatitude was flowing
out of us along with misty breath,
and we felt something truly unforgettable.

We felt like lost fairies.

Till, of course, we returned.

For the average Mumbai Taxi Driver

Sweat, Toil, Grime
makes for a classic trope
in fiction.

This trope is meant for him,
what the luckier customer
experiences as discomfort
or vicarious reading pleasure.

Yet
he is sometimes one with his machine
like a champion racer,
sometimes a scathing social commentator, or a sermonizer
of the highest caliber,
or a most moral value-upholding man, or a kind man, or both,
an entrepreneur dreaming of big things,
maybe a master raconteur-reminiscer of stories
from a time and place from whence he came -- and remembers --
or a man among his mates during breaks or traffic-stops,
sharing jokes and stuff,
or sometimes a plain tired man, perhaps foul and angry,
caught up in the circus of traffic and life,
another classic trope.

On beauty of Simplicity

Let me rather switch to surfactants, molecules with two parts: a polar head
which likes water, and an aliphatic tail which hates water. Benjamin Franklin
performed a beautiful experiment using surfactants; on a pond at Clapham
Common, he poured a small amount of oleic acid, a natural surfactant
which tends to form a dense film at the water-air interface. He measured
the volume required to cover all the pond. Knowing the area, he then knew
the height of the film, something like three nanometers in our current units.
This was to my knowledge the first measurement of the size of molecules. In
our days, when we are spoilt with exceedingly complex toys, such as nuclear
reactors or synchrotron sources, I particularly like to describe experiments
of this Franklin style to my students

-- from P. G. de Gennes's Nobel Lecture

Sermon on mental noise

Giving shape to the goings-on in the background is like drawing a human's cartoon.

Untitled

What a grand flight it was my darling
Remember the daring, when all was light, when all was bright

What a grander fall it was my beloved
Heard no thud, no one bled, heart's messed up is all.


---

7th june 14, tifr mumbai

The Academics

Some people so caught
In playing the big game
By its softer rules, its looser frames,
That seems they forgot

It is only they,
who really rule the rules
And not the rules be the ruler,
let That be clear like the shining day.

Nothing against cliques,
it is but inevitable
Forget able or unable,
lest totally forget how people click

one person with another.