The Persistence of Memory by Dali - A modern take

 

I have always been a huge fan of Dali and surprisingly, never reproduced any of his works even for a hobby. This Sunday I thought of giving it a shot and re-imagined Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" with a more modern approach. With just a simple change of replacing the wavy clocks by mobile phones, it correlates both the title of the piece with the modern style of living. The Mobile phone is something we are keeping in our daily lives and involuntarily has become our "persistence of memory" our lives.

The size of the piece is 8"x8" and has been made in water colors (Camel + Ladoga)

Qualified - A philosophical tribute to SSR

Image source: https://www.filmibeat.com/bollywood/features/2020/sushant-singh-rajput-had-great-interest-astronomy-used-to-star-gaze-from-his-living-room/articlecontent-pf310413-300154.html

Yesterday, a childhood friend messaged me on Whatsapp. "Bhai, my philosophy of life has changed. Now I don't need to run after success or making it big." This is what happens when someone famous dies an unnatural death and people start to realise the futility of their efforts in pursuing their dreams. These kind of situations trigger the unknown inside us and we start to ponder on our lives, goals and doubt on our capabilities.

Since my childhood I have seen lots of death. During adolescence, we used to cycle to school and there was a Hindu Samshan Ghat (Funeral place) en route and we used to encounter a death every few days. Also, we used to find dead animals like snakes, dogs etc. every now and then on the roads. You can imagine what impact will this have on kids who are growing up and learning about life. Even during my school days, there were couple of cases when there was news of unnatural death.

This incident of Sushant's death triggered an old incident which happened years back and I lost a close friend in that incident. I can very well relate to the pain of unnatural death and how depressing it can be for people connected to the passed soul. It hurts beyond belief and the brain is overflowing with only emotions. If you notice, I mentioned brain and not heart because scientifically the brain is wired to think and trigger any kind of emotions. That's what is the source of all emotions - our brain, our mind or our cerebral - whatever you may want to call it. That needs to be healthy.

I have seen few of his films and a very unique thing anyone might have noticed it that he gels so well with the character that you will hardly notice the real him. If you know about the upbringing in Bihar, children are always under pressure to perform in the competitive exams. I remember one of my teachers used to say - "IIT nahi nikale to zindagi kharab hai." This is a very general statement and is applicable in most cities in Bihar/Jharkhand. For a guy who cracked 11 entrance exams and got into one of the elite colleges, he was a Bihari parents' dream. And for someone to be connected to science and philosophy even after being surrounded by financial and social vultures, says a lot about the attitude. A person from Bihar can understand the depth of what I said just now because "papa ki maar se bahut dar lagta tha." For Bihari/Jharkhandi students, cracking a competition becomes the only goal of life when they get into their higher secondary as the state itself has very few opportunities to grow in life in THE RIGHT WAY.

Nevertheless, my point is that we already face a lot of hardships during our childhood, teenage and adolescence. But the one thing which keeps us going is curiosity. Curiosity to explore, to learn, to innovate and to do good. That keeps the child in us alive all the time. Anyone who is scientific in his brain has that child one way or the other. He knows that learning is the only way out to suffice the brain. So, what chokes that brain? The brain is choked when learning is compromised. That brain is choked when innovation is compromised. That brain is choken when philosophy is compromised. Who does that? Anyone who knows that he has the capacity to spoil my life will do that. The power, the greed, the avarice and the ignorance of the money minded Cassius kills the child in the mind. But the mind wants to be free. When the mind is unable to hold on to the string of life, it overcomes sanity and the unbearable happens.

I started following Sushant on Instagram after I saw his post that he has started to learn to build computer games. Doesn't that sound very ironical? A Bollywood celebrity trying to learn to make a game? But that shows the curious brain and will to keep going. But all this is overcome when the Cassius plays his game. And the mind succumbs to the will of others. It creates a rage inside the mind and a war of existence.

When someone makes a compromise, he/she kills a part of himself.

I have been thinking about the statement which I just mentioned for quite sometime. It is a life learning more than anything else. We should never rob someone of making a choice. It's the free will of existence. I think money, power and society makes you do that. It will make you oppress the freedom of someone's brain. Somehow, the same might have happened with the philosophical mind of SSR.

We know that Kaliyug will be only fortifying its existence as the days go by. So, we will need to strengthen our minds even more. May be he was too Educated to be in the coterie of dollar munching rats and his QUALIFICATION wasn't enough.

Let's celebrate the life of one of the finest actors and a science mate - Sushant Singh Rajput. Be well and may your soul get Mukti from the 'mrityu'lok we live in.

Photography, art and math

Wow! Nikki Graziano has a wonderful hobby!

Lesser Knowns - Martin Cooper

Image Source: Wikipedia

I was very curious about finding out the person behind the invention on the cell phone. I landed up on a Wiki page and was pleased to read the information about the inventor, Martin Cooper. His invention has been exemplary and the people of the world must congratulate him for his invention as cell phones have made life easier for all and sundry.

Color Mixture

I was inspired by Istvan Orosz math poem here. So I thought of following his instructions and translating the same to Hindi.
It's lovely. You should read his concept about color mixing on his blog.

MJ

My name is Gauhar Khan

Congratulations to Vikram Sampath. I was pleased to see this article on The Hindu. I met Vikram sometime back and had the privilege to attend his talk on the book he was writing and his research on music.

Congratulations to Vikram once again. You can have a look at Vikram's site too.

Some books to read

Infinity and the Mind by Rudy Rucker

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Leonardo Da Vinci - By Martin Kemp

Mathematically inspired Paintings

Have a look at Michael Schultheis's site. AWESOME!!
:-)

23rd March

It's a pity that no news channel in India is featuring the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru today.
They were one of the greatest martyrs of all times for India.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

I just happened to see this movie - "Pirates of Silicon Valley".

These are the opening words --
"I don't want you to think of this as just a film, some process of converting electrons and magnetic impulses into shapes and figures and sounds. No. Listen to me. We're here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here? We're creating a completely new consciousness, like an artist or a poet. That's how you have to think of this. We're rewriting the history of human thought with what we're doing."

Read more on wiki here.

More on Steve Jobs here and here.

Gulzar

I'm happy that my favourite lyricist got an Oscar for "Jai Ho". :D So, I thought of translating my favourite song "Tujhse Naaraaz .." from the movie Masoom.

Here it goes..

I'm not displeased by you, O! Life, I'm perplexed!
I'm perplexed!
I'm worried by your innocent questions;
I'm worried!

I had never thought, I'd have to hold pain to live;
If I smile, I would have to get rid of a debt for that smile;
When I smile sometimes, I feel..
A debt on my lips.
I'm not....

If they got filled today, drops would pour down;
Who knows? Eyes may yearn for them tomorrow.
Don't know where it got lost, disappeared whither?
I had hidden a tear.
I'm not....

O Life! Your sorrows have made me understand new relations;
What we get! We get cold shadows under sun.
I'm not....

[I have written about him earlier too.]

Mathematical poetry

In this post, I would like to mention two of my friends who have given me an insight into the world of visual mathematical poetry.

Thanks Karl and Kaz.

Kaz Maslanka
www.kazmaslanka.com
www.mathematicalpoetry.blogspot.com

Karl Kempton
http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/kaldron.htm
See this link for Karl's works (many of 'em) - http://mathematicalpoetry.blogspot.com/2006/07/karl-kempton-links.html

Also, to inform my readers, I did the translation of mathematical poems by Kitasono Katue in Hindi for Karl Young. Have a look here and if you know Hindi, please feel free to point out my mistakes, if any.

3D Ambigram - Inspired by GEB

(C) Anand Bora

I longed to make this one. At last, I did it.
Isn't it beautiful? (Find my name "AnanD" in the shadows)
(Inspired by GEB. Author: Douglas Hofstadter)

I have made it on Google Sketchup using a Rendering tool IRender.
I have not purchased the software and am using a trial version, hence there are watermarks of the company.

Note: I have taken around 6 hours to make this one.

Experience of a lifetime - Finale

Picture of one of the works by Yvonne Kracht

I forgot to mention one of the best moments for me. I met Carlo Sequin who is the main juror of the conference. I gave him my introduction. To my surprise, he knew me. Oh! My god. I'll never ever forget that moment. A person of his stature knew me. He is a gem of a person and anything is less to write about him.

Anyways, the next day, the conference started. Carlo gave the introductory speech which triggered a thumping start to one of the best events of my life. The next five days involved phenomenal talks by Rinus Roelfs, Chaim Goodman Strauss, George Hart, Dick Termes, Paul Prudence, Javier Barrallo, John Sullivan, Benjamin Storch, Akio Hizume, Erik and many others. Of course, it is needless to say that all the talks were extraordinary. Also, I happened to see original works by M.C. Escher. The Escher foundation had organised the exhibit in the university.

On one of the days, we went for an excursion to 7 churches. Exhibits of 7 mathematical artists were organized in these churches. I was dumbfounded as I realized that people had done so much work in this field and I never knew about it. Those works were not only logic driven but also remarkably beautiful.

The time for departure had come. I learnt so many things in those few days which cannot be explained just by writing. You have to be at the place to feel it and learn from it.

I'll write about Amsterdam and the museums some other time.

First Time

Hmm.. I was pondering that when was the first time I did my first complete artwork. Hah! I was an interesting incident which I would like to share with my readers.
The first complete work was the painting of Lord Krishna done by sketch pens. I may be 10 years old. So why did I do it? That is an important point. At that time, I had never taken a training or learnt any form of art.
It so happened that one of my aunts had come all the way from Nepal to adopt a child at my native, Ranchi. There were lots of complications in the adoption process but somehow she could manage to do that. Moreover, her child fell seriously ill. The doctors said that there were very little chances of his survival. But I think the belief of my Grandma saved him. My mother took very good care of the child like her own son. After a week of serious illness, the child was outta danger. We all were so happy. My aunt was about to leave the city. That day, I thought of gifting her the Krishna.
So I sat down and started making the portrait of the Lord. It turned out to be beautiful.
Finally, she took both the Krishnas home. May be that Krishna is still helping me hone my skills.
I should tell my readers that I have never taken any formal training in ART but for some short courses in my childhood. It's very innate.I just feel happy doing these things, so I do it.
:-)

The Master does it again

The Master batsman, Sachin Tendulkar, in the game of Cricket has done it again.
He hit his 38th Century in Test Cricket against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
I have been a fan of this legend since long time.
LONG LIVE SACHIN!

It's so soothing

Today I got my first blogging award, not on this blog though. I am very excited as my first award means a lot to me.

It's for the Ambigrams Blog which I update every now and then. I am very thankful to EV Nucci for honoring me with Southern Cross Award.

EV is a phenomenal person with pristine attitude towards life. She says that her middle name is Tenacity and Perseverance. This statement itself denotes her supreme character and intrepid human soul. You can read more about EV on her blog.

The award has been created by another amazing artist, Kim Barker who lives in Sydney, Australia. I thank Kim too for creating such a wonderful award. You can see the artworks of Kim at Laketrees.

Splendid Referer, splendid content - SAW-ed the Youtube

I have been very fortunate to get some reliable, intelligent and cool friends during the course of my life. One among them is Amit Saurav. He is a brilliant programmer, a computer science freak and a crispy cool personality. Currently pursuing his MS in Stony Brook, he has an aim of stamping his authority in the field of Computer Science. Someday, he will definately do this.

He referred me this link last week as he has seen me doing such kinda things earlier. I can definately make this one but it will take me another 10 years of practise to match the speed.Do visit Amit's blog and Amit's googlepages for his thoughts, insights and achievements.

Translation of Woh Kagaz ki Kashti

In my last post, I talked about "Woh Kagaz ki kashti..", the song sung by Jagjit Singh.
I found an appropriate translation of the song on one of the blogs.
Do check it out.
The blogger calls herself Shaykhspeara Sha'ira.