Subject: rt31 Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 16:16:44 -0400 Celestially cool friends, Hope you are all doing well, and enjoying the summer weather. Here in the mid-atlantic the cicadas have emerged from their subterranean sojourn after seventeen years and are filling the air with a cosmic chorus in wooded areas everywhere. These big grass-hopper length insects supposedly spend about a month calling for potential mates, and once their business is done, simply die. So now the ground is beginning to be full of dead or dying cicadas, having left seeds for new cicadas which will, I guess, spend another seventeen years growing up to become papa and mama cicadas. What they really do underground for seventeen years is a big mystery to me. Are they simply averse to light and fresh air? Don't they want to know what goes on in the world? Even earthworms come out after a rain. Perhaps they have found this to be the best way to survive. Who can argue with them? They seem to have been doing a good job of surviving and reproducing. As you can see, this collection of random thoughts is going to be more random and silly than the previous one. If some of it sounds a little bit yesterdayish, it is because I am writing them from notes I made during the past year. Hope you enjoy reading it, and I look forward to hearing from you very much. Sankar Random thoughts (31) 5/30/04 1. I have always wondered, what attracts a person to some and not to others? There is a theory that people are attracted to people whose features and personality traits remind them of someone close to them. For instance, I remember someone remarking that Bill Clinton might have been attracted to Monica because she was full-bodied and had a big chin like himself (and his mother, perhaps). So in my case I ought to be attracted to women who remind me of my mother, sisters or aunts. But empirical evidence gathered over the years seems to indicate that I tend to be more attracted to women who are like either of my (late) grandmothers. And then the light bulb flashed in my brain: Duh! I have the genes of my two grandfathers, so I am attracted to women who are like my grandmothers. 2. The conversations in my head are increasingly and annoyingly sounding like the conversations between my parents when I was growing up. The tendencies inherited from them create thoughts that are similar to what they might have had in similar situations. It is amazing how the memories from one's childhood and youth get so firmly embedded in one's subconscious. They constantly pop up in my dreams. No wonder children growing up in dysfunctional families have so much trouble in their lives later on. Though there is a lot of debate about this, I think that the environment in which children grow up is very important. (Thinking of "the Nurture Assumption" by Judith Harris). 3. Heard that ("Newsweek," article about emerging South Asians) Norah Jones is famous sitarist Ravishankar's daughter. Just thought you'd like to know. Her mother is an American woman named Sue Jones. (Tony, thanks for "Come away with me" -- love it!). 4. Saw some classic (if I may) Bollywood movies in June last year, on the "Turner classic movies" channel. Growing up, didn't pay much attention to all those song and dance sequences, though listening to those movie songs on radio was my main source of music education. But when I see them now, I can see what it really means. Many of today's Indian music videos are quite juvenile, but those classic song and dance sequences evoke what romance truly means to the Indian soul -- a mixture of mysticism and love, full of a sense of the tragic, of separation and yearning, they blur the lines between the ethereal and the material. Some say the movie romance offers an escape for the average Indian from his/her romance-deprived life, but I wonder if perhaps the opposite is true: since the movies (atleast used to be) are the main entertainment source for the average Indian, maybe the romanticism depicted in them taught the past generations of Indians how to love. Not that I think it is the best way, though. 5. Talking of movies and romance, why are trains so enchanting? So many poignant scenes involve someone waving out the window with the loved one sadly watching as the train pulls out of the station. Then there is the scene involving the train flashing through the lonely desert or prairie. If you are in the countryside, watching the train pass through the open land and disappear into the horizon is a truly stirring sight (maybe this was the motivation for "Trainspotting"). Somehow, watching cars whiz by on the freeway doesn't create the same emotions, though a ship sailing out into the ocean could. Perhaps it is because the heart takes a little time to register something, and emotions need time to build up --time they don't have in today's fast-paced world. Perhaps part of romance is the yearning, and the separation. You fall in love with something that is rare, that appears momentarily and then disappears. 6. For a single person, a perfectly beautiful day with the sun shining, wispy clouds passing through blue skies in the warm summer breeze could be a rather sad day, if he or she starts thinking about not having anyone to share it with. On the other hand, for a couple, a rainy, cool day could be very romantic because you could cuddle up or share an umbrella. 7. Watching a Scottish marching band reminded me of the power of music. Music can touch our hearts and make us fall in love; stir up passions and prepare us for battle; but the most sublime (like Bach) can help us to connect with our soul and lift our spirits. 8. Gardens are little sanctuaries for people. One's own private reservoir of bliss and peace. An oasis of order in a chaotic world. I think their great love of gardens has had a big influence on the character of the English and the Japanese. 9. Sometimes I am happy for my rather isolated existence in the US. At times I am also happy for living in the inner-city which is not part of the glitzy and incessantly active mainstream. I think it keeps me more rooted in the real world, and also promotes introspection and contemplation. Perhaps I could do that anywhere if I immerse myself in some books or thoughts, spending time occasionally in the wilderness. But it is good to know there is this positive side to this, among others. 10. One day I was at Gravelly point near the National airport, doing some stretching exercises after biking or jogging. While bending over, I happened to look at the landscape upside down, and suddenly it looked rather exotic and wild. Often we forget how beautiful a place is, once it becomes familiar. We are too caught up in our own thoughts and hardly pay any attention. If we suspend our thoughts for a moment and simply observe, even the most commonplace event or sight can be very fascinating. 11. I think that the natural state of mind is to be calm and peaceful, just as the natural state of water is to be still. The waves arise when the winds whip up the waters. The stronger the winds, the more numerous and taller the waves are. The disturbances and activities of our mind result from our reactions to the stimuli from the world. The more active and thoughtful we are, the more disturbances there are. Waves in a small pond are smaller than those in the ocean. But then the ocean is also deeper, and very calm beneath the surface.