tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46759127016184470432024-03-13T20:28:56.769-07:00Something About EverythingAbhay Avachat's BlogAbhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460095655750795126noreply@blogger.comBlogger458125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-39050012483329153562024-02-04T18:19:00.000-08:002024-02-04T18:23:23.838-08:0012th Fail<span id="docs-internal-guid-c467aa31-7fff-ff75-6238-3fc4d129a50d"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMuThqZ4LdyaxsHw-oG7vv8gX4O1POPREJsRskZD0GE1KD0VzkX86ciHGeYdj51eBpqJ1FeiJqjzrS0QFs02cIWWrEmPDKUwuDBBBdzHZ2k7SRW5BJbqA0e_y1e0-yqfzoYqSq8_0UpxyYWkDpPqEUfXU9ssqS_p_ld_umyzUIUZRVp7fyvAYxA-3b00k/s251/12thFail.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="201" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMuThqZ4LdyaxsHw-oG7vv8gX4O1POPREJsRskZD0GE1KD0VzkX86ciHGeYdj51eBpqJ1FeiJqjzrS0QFs02cIWWrEmPDKUwuDBBBdzHZ2k7SRW5BJbqA0e_y1e0-yqfzoYqSq8_0UpxyYWkDpPqEUfXU9ssqS_p_ld_umyzUIUZRVp7fyvAYxA-3b00k/w176-h251/12thFail.jpeg" width="176" /></a></div><b>Movie Review: 12th Fail</b></span></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra</span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Genre: Biography</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Language: Hindi</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Starring: Vikrant Massey, Medha Shankar, Anant Joshi, Anshuman Pushkar</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Released: 2023</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>My Rating: 10 out of 10</b></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Only once in a while you watch a movie and feel that you have watched perfection in storytelling, not just brilliance (which also is rare, I must say). As you can easily guess from my rating of 10 out of 10, “12th Fail” is such a movie for me.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This is the story of Manoj Kumar Sharma (Vikram Massey). As the movie opens, we see him as a student living in a remote village in the infamous Chambal area. He is preparing notes to carry with him in the exam hall, so that he can cheat. Not because he is a bad person, but that’s all the kids in that school know and are expected to do In order to clear the 12th exam. Even their teacher helps them cheat. This nicely sets up the context for the rest of the movie. This is the life, this is the environment, this is the reality from which Manoj Kumar Sharma has to start his journey to clear one of the most competitive exams in India and become an IPS Officer. He gets that inspiration from an honest police officer who is unafraid to fight against the system.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Getting inspiration, as we all know, is the easy part. Everywhere in the world and definitely in India, the odds are stacked against people like Manoj. The movie follows his struggles along the long road to his eventual success. This is not a spoiler, as it’s not a suspense how the movie is going to end. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">What I found to be one salient feature of this movie, is the focus on positivism. This is not a tear jerker, although I did cry at the end, but with happiness. Along the way, Manoj gets help from many sources. His family gives him unconditional support, in whatever way each can. A restaurant owner (and a complete stranger) feeds him without taking money. Another stranger, Pritam (Anant Joshi) becomes a friend and takes him to Delhi and allows him to stay with him. Gauri Bhaiya (Anshuman Pushkar) tutors him and offers him a room to stay. I will let you notice other acts of kindness, but suffice it to say, Manoj doesn’t fight a lonely battle, and others see his battle as their own and genuinely want him to succeed. Of course, the most important support comes from his girlfriend and future wife, Shraddha Joshi (Medha Shankar).</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This focus on positivity during a tough struggle with honest no-frills storytelling is what I found so refreshing. I don’t know if this is unique, but it’s rare. I didn’t notice any melodramatic moments, any cinematographic tricks or anything that feels forced. Maybe there were. I was so riveted watching the people in the story, that I certainly didn’t notice any, if there was. The scene near the end of the movie, where the results of the exam are announced, manages to move us, even when it’s completely expected, because it feels so real. This is how people would react in real life. I cried with them, joining in their happiness.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Which brings me to the people in the story, the actors. Everyone is incredible. Perfect casting, perfect acting. I will have to praise each and every actor, and the list is long, so I will skip it. But it would be criminal to not mention Vikram Massey, who has given a performance that I will list amongst the greatest ever. It doesn’t even remotely feel like he was acting. A true definition of “natural”. To use the cliche, this is an Oscar worthy performance. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Many years ago, I watched a movie that I thought was unlike any other I had watched till then. That movie was “Parinda” and it made me forever remember Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s name. Some of his later movies, where he collaborated with Raj Hirani (3 Idiots, Munnabhai) are amongst the best of the Bollywood movies, but they don’t have the stark reality of Parinda and 12th Fail. Parinda, and the pervasive atmosphere of dread stayed with me for many days afterwards. This movie 12th Fail, also stayed with me for many days, but for exactly the opposite reasons, for its positivism and inspiration. And this time too, I feel like I have watched a movie unlike any other.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I cannot recommend this movie enough. If you don’t watch it, you are depriving yourself of a chance to enjoy one of the best movies ever made. The movie is very family friendly, and I am sure, teenagers would enjoy it.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KjbtuqENvVE?si=cS_UzhfyRrHyKK2s" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460095655750795126noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-80868429469819893592024-01-07T17:59:00.000-08:002024-01-07T17:59:15.558-08:00ChromeOS Flex<span id="docs-internal-guid-fab1c78b-7fff-7f26-93e1-6d9f167e22dd"><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I installed ChromeOS Flex on my old laptop, and you should too!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I have been using Chromebooks for a while now, and I have been a vocal fan. My first Chromebook was purchased just because it was very light and available for about $200. I didn’t really know what to expect. I just wanted to try, and the price was awesome. As I started using it, I noticed that the performance of Chrome browser was a lot better than my expensive laptops, both Mac and Windows. Considering that the Chromebook had a very low end CPU (Pentium), only 4GB in RAM, it was quite a shock.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Then I noticed how long the battery lasts, how quickly it starts up and shuts down, and how light it was to carry around. Eventually, the chromebook became my main laptop. Sure, I still needed my other expensive laptop for editing audio and video. But that’s not my main usage. On a daily basis, most of my laptop usage was just on the Chrome browser, and hardly on any other app. And the Chrome browser on a cheap Chromebook with a very low end CPU and just 4GB RAM was easily beating Chrome (and any other browser) on a Mac and Windows laptop. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Though, I also noticed that as the tabs on the Chromebook browser increased, the tab switching was getting slower. At this point I was so hooked to the light weight, long battery life, fast start up and fast browser of the Chromebook, I decided to buy another one having a better CPU (Intel i5) and it has been the best laptop I have ever bought.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">There are many other pros and cons of Chrombooks. You can read about them on your favorite review sites. It may or may not convince you to buy a Chromebook. <b>What I am recommending you is to try the free ChromeOS Flex on an old laptop that you hardly ever use, and are thinking of throwing away.</b></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yes. That’s what ChromeOS Flex is aimed at. You can install it on your Windows or MacOS laptop. The older laptops probably have a CPU/Memory combination that’s not enough for today’s applications. But … that’s going to be way more than enough for ChromeOS Flex.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">You can read more about it on Google’s information page on ChromOS Flex. </span><a href="https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/</span></a><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Personally, I really really liked the benefit of reducing e-waste, and I liked ChromeOS anyways. So I gave it a try. I followed the steps to install ChromeOS Flex on my older laptop with an Intel i7 and 8GB RAM. Even though my specific laptop model was not in the list of supported devices, everything went smoothly. It’s very important to note that this process is irreversible. You will lose all the data on the laptop on which you install ChromOS Flex.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The resulting performance improvement was very noticeable! The CPU/memory combination is way more than what ChromeOS needs to deliver that speed. The startup/shutdown is superfast and the battery lasts longer. I have not encountered any sites that don’t work with configuration. I have been using this laptop with ChromeOS Flex for about 4 months now, and have been very happy.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ChromeOS Flex is not exactly the same as ChromeOS. For example, the Chromebooks are generally far more secure because of specific hardware enhancements. So your laptop is not going to become a Chromebook. You can read more about the differences Google’s information page on the differences between ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex. </span><a href="https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11542901?hl=en" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11542901?hl=en</span></a><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Based on my experience, I highly recommend that you try it. It’s completely free. I am pretty sure a laptop that you have stopped using will again be used, and possibly for most of your daily browser tasks it will perform better than your newer laptop.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-20211319030192693922023-04-09T15:22:00.001-07:002023-12-27T21:40:14.673-08:00Book Review: The Elephant Whisperer<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NcMJEGuH3W85y1m24hf5lw5BFaZpug1fdf9k4ndL6UBGwYjMO_Hps3X59p8hGjiKEpMQACchubvOcHV5YokAi2sRnRrrg_N-hDDupOU22ecz6mik0Wxs-SXslXE9HHPJQPw_S3UOKVK8kxGyhBJosYgnD4Zq-_f_Pf-vLeodtT_ncK24WGczo8sg/s636/Screenshot%202023-04-09%202.55.06%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="446" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NcMJEGuH3W85y1m24hf5lw5BFaZpug1fdf9k4ndL6UBGwYjMO_Hps3X59p8hGjiKEpMQACchubvOcHV5YokAi2sRnRrrg_N-hDDupOU22ecz6mik0Wxs-SXslXE9HHPJQPw_S3UOKVK8kxGyhBJosYgnD4Zq-_f_Pf-vLeodtT_ncK24WGczo8sg/w140-h200/Screenshot%202023-04-09%202.55.06%20PM.png" width="140" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Book Review: The Elephant Whisperer</b></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Author: Lawrence Anthony
</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>My Rating: 4 out of 5</b></span></span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-7c66793f-7fff-edef-9e01-78c63d6cbdd5"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The complete title of the book is “<i>The Elephant Whisperer: Learning about Life, Loyalty and Freedom from a Remarkable Herd of Elephants</i>”.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I came across this book by luck, even though it is a bestseller by a celebrated conservationist Lawrence Anthony. The title intrigued me, and I decided to give it a chance. And I am so happy I did.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I do not read much about a book beforehand, except the blurbs on the back. So I didn’t have much idea as to what to expect. And the book started very slowly for me. In the beginning I had questions, as to what exactly is a “Boma” and how exactly is an entire elephant family transported? But quickly, the book moved on to the real story. The story of a herd of elephants, in the Thula Thula reserve owned by the author.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And what a story this is! This is a deeply personal account of how the author Lawrence Anthony, acquired the herd, won their trust, and eventually their friendship. I must clarify, the herd remains wild and more importantly “free”. The author is requested to take responsibility for a family of elephants. Since they had been causing trouble, the only other option was to kill them. The author, who has no experience in dealing with elephants, let alone “troublesome” elephants, decides to do his best to save them from certain death. After the herd is transported into the reserve, or the “Boma” part of it, which is an enclosure to keep them safe till they get acclimatized, they make numerous attempts to escape. These are intelligently planned attempts by the matriarch, and they almost succeed. But their escape and attempts to return to their original habitat means getting too close to human settlements and once again invites certain death for them.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eventually, the author manages to make the elephants comfortable in their new habitat. The herd thrives and grows. And the author gets to know each of them. He learns about their personalities, manages to establish communication with them and even shares their rituals. The encounters are amazing to read. Some are heart-warming, some nerve wrecking scary, some tear-jerking and they all will leave a mark in your memory. There are many ups and downs. Not everything goes on as planned. There are tragedies and terrible mistakes. And there are also many moments of joy and wonder. It’s life after all.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The book tells how amazing these creatures are. What shines through all this is the respect the author shows for them. He doesn’t venture into their space unless they “invite” him. The elephants remain truly in charge, as they should. He also doesn’t romanticize everything about them. He shows keen awareness of life in the wild and has a bit of a philosophical approach toward dealing with it.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Elephants are extremely intelligent and empathetic creatures. I have been lucky to have visited Africa and saw them roaming freely in the wild. <a href="https://abhayavachat.blogspot.com/2013/07/maasai-mara-elephants-and-monkeys.html" target="_blank">See the photos here.</a> The word that comes to mind is “majestic”. It’s not only important for the ecosystem to have the elephants thrive, but also as a reflection on humanity, that we can peacefully share this planet with all creatures. People like Lawrence Anthony and many other conservationists who dedicate their lives to this cause are the rays of hope, and we must thank them.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a fabulous book. Not written in a literary language, but in an honest personal style. Read it.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-75502915213060986492021-12-25T19:47:00.004-08:002021-12-25T20:09:16.518-08:00साबुदाण्याची सांस्कृतिक खिचडी<span id="docs-internal-guid-3887ad73-7fff-010f-057d-28f5f45cea6d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">साबुदाण्याची सांस्कृतिक खिचडी </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">साबुदाण्याच्या खिचडीची पाककृती शोधून महाराष्ट्राने समस्त भारतवर्षावर अनंत उपकार केले आहेत असं मी ठामपणे बऱ्याच लोकांना सांगितलं आहे. अर्थातच ह्या विधानाला सिद्ध करायला माझ्याकडे काही पुरावा वगैरे नाही आणि असे सगळे वाद केवळ गंमत म्हणून. पाककृतीचा शोध कोणी का लावला असेना, त्याने प्रत्येक घासातला अवर्णनीय आनंद काही कमी होत नाही. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">हा अस्सल महाराष्ट्रीय पदार्थ किती अस्सल आहे? पाककृती बहुतेक अस्सल मराठमोळी आहे, पण त्यातल्या घटकांचं काय? </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">सगळ्यात आधी, अस्सल हा अरबी मधून आलेला शब्द (اصل अस्ल = शुद्ध, तत्व, सत्य) ज्याचं अनेकवचन उसूल (اصول). (हो, हो, दीवार मधल्या त्या सुप्रसिद्ध dialogue मधला उसूल). आणि तुम्ही ओळखलं असेलच की नक्कल हासुद्धा अरबी ( نقل नक़्ल) मधून आला असणार. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">तर, साबुदाण्याच्या खिचडीमध्ये मीठ आणि फोडणीशिवाय चार घटक असतात - साबुदाणा, बटाटा, शेंगदाणा आणि मिरची. ही नावं कुठून आली? आणि मुख्य म्हणजे हे पदार्थ कुठून आले?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">बटाटा हा पदार्थ (आणि त्याचं नाव) भारतात पोर्तुगीज लोकांनी आणला हे सर्वश्रुत आहे. बटाट्याचा उगम दक्षिण अमेरिकेतील पेरू ह्या देशात झाला. हे नाव Taíno नावाच्या Carribean भाषेतून आलं आहे जी आता अस्तित्वात नाही. हिंदी मधलं आलू हे नाव फारसीमधून (آلو म्हणजे plum) आले आहे. बटाट्याचा दूरचा चुलतभाऊ रताळं (sweet potato) हा ही अमेरिका खंडातला पदार्थ. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आज स्थानिक मिरचीचा अभिमान खूप ठिकाणी आढळतो. मग ती कोल्हापूरची लवंगी मिरची असो, वा आंध्र मधील गुंतुर मिरची असो. मिरची शब्द संस्कृत “मरिच” </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">वरून आला आहे </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">पण मिरचीसुद्धा अमेरिका खंडात मेक्सिको मध्ये जन्मली आणि युरोपियन लोकांबरोबर जगभर पसरली. आज मिरचीचे असंख्य प्रकार आहेत, दुसऱ्या कुठच्याच फळात इतकी विविधता नसेल. (हो, मिरची हे झाडाचं फळ आहे.) इंग्लिश मधला chilli हा शब्द मेक्सिको मधल्या Nahuatl भाषेतून जसाच्या तसा आला आहे. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आणि शेंगदाण्याचं काय? हो, तोही दक्षिण अमेरिकेमधलाच!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">पण दाणा हा शब्द फारसी मधल्या “दान: (دانہ)” वरून आला आहे. आपण अगदी ण वापरून त्याला मराठमोळं करून टाकलं. फारसी मध्ये दुसरा शब्द आहे दाना (دانا) - म्हणजे बुद्धिमान, ज्ञाता. दानिश (बुद्धी) असं नावही आहे. इथे फारसी आणि संस्कृत मधल्या शब्दांचं साधर्म्य सहज जाणवतं. दानिश म्हणजे ज्ञान, आणि दाना म्हणजे ज्ञानी. हा योगायोग नाही. वेदकालीन संस्कृत आणि प्राचीन फारसी ह्यांचा उगम एकाच अतिप्राचीन भाषेतून झाला आहे. (फारसी चा उगम संस्कृत मधून नाही झाला आहे, पुन्हा एकदा स्पष्ट करतो. असो.) </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्या संदर्भात दोन शेर ऐका, दाना आणि दान: ह्यातला फरक दाखवण्यासाठी. आता ग़ालिब आणि इक़बाल, ज्यांची काव्यप्रतिभा माझ्यासाठी देवस्थानी आहे, त्यांचे शेर सांगण्याची संधी मी कशी सोडेन?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">हम कहाँ के दाना थे, किस हुनर में यकता थे </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">बेसबब हुआ, ग़ालिब, दुश्मन आसमाँ अपना </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(मी कुठे कोण बुद्धिवंत होतो, कुठच्या कलेत अद्वितीय होतो</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">विनाकारण दैवाने माझ्याशी वैर घेतलं)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">फार अर्थपूर्ण शेर आहे. पूर्ण गज़लच छान आहे. गज़ल सम्राज्ञी बेग़म अख़्तर ह्यांनी अप्रतिमरित्या गायलेल्या ग़ालिबच्या “ज़िक्र उस परिवश का” गज़लचा हा मक़्ता आहे. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">महाकवी इक़बाल ह्यांची कविता अतिशय आध्यात्मिक आणि संकेतात्मक असते, हे ध्यानात ठेवून त्यांच्या एका सुप्रसिद्ध कवितेतल्या पहिल्या ओळी वाचा. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;">आश्ना</span> अपनी हक़ीक़त से हो, ऐ देहकाँ ज़रा </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">दान: भी तू , खेती भी तू , बाराँ भी तू , हासिल भी तू </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(केवळ शब्दार्थ लिहितो आहे. ह्यातले आध्यात्मिक संकेत तसे स्पष्ट आहेत. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अरे शेतकऱ्या, स्वतःच्याच सत्याशी थोडा परिचित तरी हो </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">दाणाही तूच, शेतीही तूच, वर्षाही तूच आणि प्राप्तीही तूच)</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आता राहिला साबुदाणा. हो, बाकीच्या तीन घटकांसारखा हाही दक्षिण अमेरिकेतूनच आला आहे. Cassava ह्या मूळच्या दक्षिण अमेरिकेतील कंदमुळाच्या पिठापासून साबुदाणा बनतो. ह्याचे Tapioca हे नाव ब्राझील मधून आलं आहे. मात्र पीठांपासून असे गोल दाणे बनविण्याची पद्धत मलेशिया मधून आली आहे.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">बघा. साबुदाणा खिचडी सारखा अस्सल मराठमोळा पदार्थ, जो आपण एकादशी सारख्या धार्मिक दिवशी खातो, तो बनवायला लागणारे सर्व मुख्य घटक “परकीय परधर्मीय आक्रमकांनी” भारतात आणले आहेत. तेही केवळ तीन चारशे वर्षांपूर्वी. खूप विचार करण्यासारखी गोष्ट आहे. मग “आपली संस्कृती” म्हणजे नक्की काय?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्या प्रश्नात अवघडून जाण्यासारखे काहीच नाही आणि अशी “खिचडी” सर्वत्र आढळते.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">हिंदी चित्रपटांनी आपली अशी समजूत करून दिली आहे की, शतकानुशके पंजाबी आया त्यांच्या मुलांना गरम गरम “मक्के दी रोटी” खायला घालत आल्या आहेत. पण हा मका देखील मूळचा अमेरिकेतलाच आहे. यूरोपीय लोंकानी तो जगभर नेला. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">भारताबाहेरही सर्व प्रदेशांची हीच गत आहे. स्वित्झर्लंड आणि बेल्जियम मधल्या जगप्रसिद्ध चॉकलेट मधला मुख्य घटक “कोको” (Cocoa bean) मूळचा दक्षिण अमेरिकेतलाच. टोमॅटो शिवाय आज इटालियन जेवणाची आपण कल्पनाही करू शकत नाही. हा टोमॅटो सुद्धा दक्षिण अमेरिकेतूनच आला आहे. हे नावसुद्धा मेक्सिकोतल्या Nahuatl भाषेतून आलं आहे. गंमत म्हणजे टोमॅटोचं आगमन जरी चारशे वर्षांपूर्वी युरोप मध्ये झालं, तरी कित्येक दशके त्याचा वापर केवळ शोभेच्या झाडांसाठी व्हायचा. कारण टोमॅटो विषारी आहे, अशी लोकांची समजूत होती. पिझ्झावर टोमॅटोचा वापर सुरु होऊन जेमेतेम दीडशे वर्ष झाली आहेत. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अजून एक. तंबाखू सुद्धा अमेरिकेतलाच. ह्या शब्दाची व्युत्पत्ती सुद्धा अमेरिका खंडातल्या जुन्या भाषांमधून आहे.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मूळच्या अमेरिका खंडातल्या ह्या पदार्थांचं आता सर्व जगावर राज्य आहे. कोलंबस ने अमेरिका खंडाचा “शोध” लावल्यामुळे संपूर्ण जगाच्या इतिहासाला जे एक अतिशय मोठं आणि मूलभूत वळण लागले, त्यात जागतिक पाकशैली वरचे परिणाम हा केवळ एक पैलू आहे.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मग “पारंपरिक पाकशैली” म्हणजे नक्की काय? भारत असो वा इटली, जरी प्रदेशांचा इतिहास खूप प्राचीन असला, तरीदेखील किती तरी “परंपरा” त्या मानाने आधुनिक आहेत. केवळ पाककलेत नाही, तर पोशाखात, आचारात, विचारात सुद्धा आधुनिकतेचं मिश्रण सर्व प्रदेशातील सर्व परंपरांमध्ये आढळतं. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आज अशी तक्रार खूप ऐकू येते, की मुलं “आपलं जेवण” जेवत नाहीत, आणि त्यांना सारखा पिझ्झा, पास्ता हवा असतो. पण मला वाटतं, जेंव्हा बटाटा आणि शेंगदाणा असे “परकीय परधर्मीय” पदार्थ आपण आपल्या धार्मिक उपवासांना खाणं सुरु केलं, तेंव्हाही तक्रार झाली असेलच की! पण आपण आपल्या पद्धतीने बटाटा आणि शेंगदाणा असा काही वापरला की आज त्यांच्याशिवाय महाराष्ट्रीय जेवणाची कल्पनाही करवत नाही. मग काही <span id="docs-internal-guid-48e38a0a-7fff-e51f-6903-6c360744cb93"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">काळानंतर</span></span> पास्ताचा वापर आपल्या जेवणात आपल्या पद्धतीने होणारच नाही असं कशावरून? फोडणीचा पास्ता छान लागतो. अर्थात फोडणी दिल्यावर काय चांगलं लागत नाही म्हणा? :-) </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">त्यामुळे माझं असं मत आहे की, संस्कृती ही नेहमीच बदलत असते. सर्वच बदल चांगले असतात असं नाही, पण सर्व बदल वाईटच असतात असं अजिबात नाही. जेंव्हा ह्या बदलांची सवय होऊन जाते, तेंव्हा तीच आपली संस्कृती असं वाटू लागतं आणि त्यात <span id="docs-internal-guid-5e46c926-7fff-162d-454a-b80ff1fc297c"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">मात्र बदल होऊ </span></span>नये असा आग्रह धरला जाऊ लागतो. पण महत्वाचं हे, की “आपली संस्कृती” म्हणजे केवळ एका सीमित प्रदेशातल्या हजारो वर्षांपूर्वीच्या प्रथा नाहीत. त्यात जगभरच्या विविध संस्कृतींमधून आलेल्या आणि मिसळून गेलेल्या गोष्टीही तितक्याच महत्वाच्या आहेत. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आता ब्राझीलचंच बघा. Tapioca तिथे हजारो वर्षांपासून खाण्यात आहे, पण त्याचे गोल दाणे त्यांनी कधी बनवले नव्हते. मलेशिया मध्ये, एका प्रकारच्या ताडाच्या झाडांमधून (Sagu) जो पिष्टमय पदार्थ येतो, त्याचे गोल दाणे (Sago Pearls) बनवण्याची खूप जुनी पद्धत आहे. ह्या दोन्ही गोष्टी यूरोपीय लोकांनी जगभर पसरवल्या. मग ब्राझील मधला Tapioca आणि मलेशिया मधली पद्धत ह्यांपासून बनले Tapioca Pearls म्हणजे साबुदाणा. आता ब्राझीलमध्ये ह्या मलेशियन पद्धतीने Tapioca चे गोल दाणे बनवून एक गोड पदार्थ बनवला जातो ज्याचे नाव ठेवलं गेलं आहे - Sagu :-) आणि अशा तऱ्हेने हे वर्तुळ पूर्ण झालं.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">विविध संस्कृतींचं विविध प्रकारे सतत होत राहणारे मिश्रण. माझ्यासाठी तरी “वसुधैव कुटुंबकम्” चा हाच खरा अर्थ आहे. </span></p></span><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-50619864167789333842021-10-06T22:04:00.006-07:002021-10-06T22:04:34.990-07:00 कशाचा कशाचा मला राग आहे <p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">कशाचा कशाचा मला राग आहे </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3ae26e57-7fff-f2c0-2748-22e26699e9db"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">धरावे सदा का तुझे हात दोन्ही </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">तुझ्या कंकणांचा मला राग आहे</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">कसा रोज न्याहाळतो हा तुला गं </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">तुझ्या आरशाचा मला राग आहे </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">कटी भोवती मेखला घट्ट का ही </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">तिच्या ह्या मिठीचा मला राग आहे</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">तुझे ओठ स्पर्शून जातो कितीदा </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">चहाच्या कपाचा मला राग आहे </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- अभय अवचट </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">October 6, 2021</span></p><br /></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-57470872867909389852021-09-18T19:30:00.003-07:002021-09-18T19:30:32.097-07:00We Have No Idea<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQgYCdJLBS8/YUaghiCTnMI/AAAAAAAAAdY/K6swE05s9HcIEGoWyAo4BGZdeAmzSh06wCLcBGAsYHQ/s193/content.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="128" height="193" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LQgYCdJLBS8/YUaghiCTnMI/AAAAAAAAAdY/K6swE05s9HcIEGoWyAo4BGZdeAmzSh06wCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/content.jpeg" width="128" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Book Review : <b>We Have No Idea</b><br />Authors: Jorge Cham, Daniel Whiteson
My Rating: <b>5 out of 5 stars</b></span></span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1481e5c3-7fff-76dd-7ea3-26a53b6424fa"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The complete title of the book is “<i>We Have No Idea : A Guide To The Unknown Universe</i>”.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love reading books on Science and Math, and within Science especially Physics. I have written many reviews of popular science books, and have highly recommended quite a few of them. I can unequivocally say that “<i>We Have No Idea</i>” is the most readable book of all of them. If you have read many popular science books, you should still read this. If you have avoided reading any science related books so far, please do yourself a favor and read this one.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the early part of the 20th century, new advances and discoveries in physics revolutionized our understanding of the universe, both at the atomic scale as well as the galactic scale. These discoveries, quantum mechanics and theory of relativity, are counter-intuitive to say the least. It takes time to understand them even at the superficial level. Still it’s worth spending the time, because the universe is mind bogglingly weird. Even a glimpse of this knowledge is enough to make you philosophical about everything. Since the topic is really hard, a large number of books have been written to explain these concepts to laypersons. Many are good. Of all the ones I have read, none is as easy to read and as fun to read as this book “<i>We Have No Idea</i>”, by the duo Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the title says, the book emphasizes what we don’t know, even after so many advances in the last nearly 100 years or so. That’s what makes the book so accessible and non-intimidating. Let me explain what I mean by examples.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have read books that try to explain the Theory Of Multiverse or the latest advances in String Theory and so on. The thing is, many such topics are speculative, as in, these have not been proven. There is a good chance that these theories might turn out to be true, but we really don’t know that. That’s precisely the point of this book. Instead of advertising how cool a theory is, the book honestly admits that we have no idea.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, we know that the universe contains many times more “dark matter” than regular matter that we can see as stars and galaxies. What is dark matter? We have no idea. The universe contains something else in even more quantity - what we call “dark energy”. What the heck is that, we have no idea. And to even more basic questions - what is really “space” and what is “time” at a fundamental level? We have no idea.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, just the admission of lack of complete knowledge is not a reason to read this book. The book is organized into many chapters which can be read independently of each other. Each chapter tackles a topic, explaining what we know and then explaining what questions remain unanswered and why.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So you can pick up the book, just read one chapter and then later come back to read some other chapter. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That organization, the diagrams and the lucidity of the language makes it an easy read. What makes it fun is the quirky humor. Many puns and jokes (admittedly geeky) are sprinkled throughout the book. I decided to not give any examples, because I don’t like to include even a tiny spoiler in my reviews.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The topics are very advanced but you will come out with an understanding of the questions the scientists are trying to answer. This is really a book about the questions and not the answers. Sometimes I wonder, are we even equipped with brains smart enough to comprehend the universe? Well, even if we are not, the quest is still a lot of fun for laypersons like us, because of books like these.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I cannot recommend this book enough, and including it in my "<i>Must Read</i>" recommendations. Especially for those who have not tried reading any popular science non-fiction. Read it, you will thank me.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-14647085910770085942021-09-03T22:18:00.003-07:002021-09-03T22:18:22.678-07:00 भारतीय संगीताची अरबी/फ़ारसी परिभाषा <p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">शास्त्रीय संगीत हे माझ्या दृष्टीने भारतीय संस्कृतीचा सर्वोच्च ठेवा आहे. काही लोकांचा अशा विधानाला आक्षेप असेल, काहींना राग येण्याचीही संभावना आहे. गणित, तत्वज्ञान अशा इतर विषयांपेक्षा संगीत मोठं कसं, हा प्रश्न योग्य आहे. पण हे केवळ माझं मत आहे, अजून कोणाचं असावं असा माझा मुळीच आग्रह नाही. मला तरी भारतीय शास्त्रीय संगीत अद्वितीय वाटतं. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-c568b93f-7fff-18f9-3d5b-26aed25bfa83"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">सगळ्यात आधी एक स्पष्टीकरण - ह्या लेखात मी केवळ “उत्तर भारतीय” शास्त्रीय संगीताबद्दल लिहिणार आहे. प्रत्येक वेळी “उत्तर भारतीय शास्त्रीय संगीत” असं म्हणायच्या ऐवजी “शास्त्रीय संगीत” असे लिहिणार आहे ते केवळ त्याच्या संक्षिप्त आणि सुटसुटीतपणा मुळे. ह्यात “कर्नाटक संगीत” आणि इतर प्रकार ह्यांना कमी लेखण्याचा हेतू अजिबात नाही.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आज मराठीमध्ये आपण जेंव्हा शास्त्रीय संगीताबद्दल बोलतो, तेंव्हा आपल्या वापरातले बहुतेक शब्द हे मूळचे अरबी किंवा फ़ारसी मधून आलेले असतात. अगदी “बेमालूम” पणे आपण ते वापरतो. जर शास्त्रीय संगीत इतके प्राचीन असेल, तर असं का? म्हणजे धृपद शैली चं नातं जर थेट सामवेदाशी असेल तर हे सगळे अरबी/फ़ारसी शब्द कसे काय रुजले?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">हे समजण्यासाठी इतिहासाकडे बघावं लागेल. पृथ्वीराज चौहानचा ११९२ सालचा पराभव हे भारताच्या इतिहासातील एक प्रमुख वळण. त्यानंतर दिल्ली वर मुस्लिम राज्यकर्त्यांची शृंखला सुरु झाली. सुरुवातीचे राजे जरी अफगाणिस्तान (आणि आताचं उझबेकिस्तान) मधल्या प्रदेशातून आले असले, तरी त्यांची भाषा फ़ारसी (किंवा फ़ारसी वरून आलेली) होती. ह्यातले बरेच राजे क्रूरकर्मा असूनही काव्य आणि संगीत कलांचे आश्रयदाते होते. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अमीर ख़ुसरो हा विद्वान आणि “हरफ़न मौला” (polymath) त्याच्या हयातीत दिल्लीच्या बऱ्याच सुलतानांच्या दरबारात होता, अल्लाउद्दीन खिलजी च्या दरबारात सुद्धा. खुसरो संगीत आणि काव्य ह्या दोन्ही कलात अतिशय निपुण होता. प्राचीन काळापासून असलेल्या “वीणा” वाद्यात त्याने काही बदल केले, आणि तीन तारा वापरून एक नवीन वाद्य बनवले. फ़ारसी मध्ये तीन म्हणजे “सेह” - त्यावरून त्याने नाव ठेवले “सेहतार”, (سہ تار) ज्याचा पुढे अपभ्रंश झाला “सितार”. (आधुनिक सितार मध्ये ३ पेक्षा जास्त तारा असतात.) तार (تار) हा शब्द ही फ़ारसी आहे. जरतारीची पैठणी मराठमोळी असेल, पण ज़र (زر) - अर्थ सोने - सुद्धा फ़ारसी आहे. तसंच सरोद हा शब्दही फ़ारसी आहे (سرود) - अर्थ “मधुर गाणं”. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अमीर ख़ुसरोच्या नावाने बऱ्याच आख्यायिका आहेत. तबला ह्या वाद्याच्या निर्मितीचे श्रेय जे काही ठिकाणी त्याला दिले आहे, ते चूक आहे असे जाणकारांचं मत दिसून येतं. तबला ह्या शब्दाची व्युत्पत्ती मात्र अरबी मधील तब्ल ( طبل म्हणजे drum) ह्या वरून आहे. तसेच क्वचित प्रसंगी खयाल (अरबी ख़याल خیال - विचार) शैलीचे श्रेय त्याला दिलं जाते ते बहुतेक पूर्णपणे चूक आहे. पण आज “तराणा” म्हणून जो गायन प्रकार आहे, तो नक्कीच अमीर खुसरो मुळे जन्मला. तो शब्द आला फ़ारसी मधल्या “तरान:” (ترانہ म्हणजे गाणं) वरून. “तरन्नुम” (म्हणजे चालीवर म्हणणे) हा त्याच्याशी निगडित असलेला शब्द. आणि आज ज्या तऱ्हेने कव्वाली गायली जाते, ती त्याच्यामुळे.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अमीर खुसरो ने फ़ारसी आणि प्राकृत ह्या दोन्ही भाषांतील शब्दांचा एकत्र वापर अगदी जाणूनबुजून सुरु केला - दोन संस्कृतींना जवळ आणण्यासाठी. त्याने लिहिलेली एक सुप्रसिद्ध ग़ज़ल, ज्यातल्या अर्ध्या ओळी फ़ारसी आणि अर्ध्या ओळी प्राकृत (हिंदवी) भाषेत आहेत, तिचा वापर गुलज़ारनी “ग़ुलामी” चित्रपटातील गाण्यात केला आहे. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ज़े-हाल-ए-मिस्कीं मकुन तग़ाफ़ुल, दुराय नैनाँ बनाए बतियाँ</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">कि ताब-ए-हिज्राँ नदारम ऐ जाँ, न लेहू काहे लगाए छतियाँ</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Do not ignore my plight, by looking away and making up tales</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t have the patience to suffer separation, why don’t you give me a hug?)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आणि एक गंमत म्हणून माहिती. वरील गज़लेचं फारसी मधून आलेले वृत्त (मुतक़ारिब मुसम्मन मुज़ाअफ़ मक़बूज़ असलम) आजही खूप वापरात आहे. उदा. एक प्रसिद्ध गाणं “न जाओ सैंया, </span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">छुड़ा के बैंया, क़सम तुम्हारी मैं रो पड़ूँगी, रो पड़ूँगी”. त्या गाण्याच्या चालीवर वरील शेर म्हणून बघा :-) </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अरबी/फ़ारसी मधले शब्द भारतीय भाषांमध्ये येण्यामध्ये अमीर ख़ुसरो चा मोठा हातभार आहे असं म्हणता येईल.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">नंतर मुगलांची सत्ता सुरु झाली आणि ही महत्वाची सांस्कृतिक कला जोपासली गेली आणि विकसित होत गेली. अकबराच्या दरबारी तानसेन होता हे आपण जाणतोच. तानसेन धृपद गायचा, त्याच्या उपलब्ध रचना धृपद मध्ये आहेत. त्यावरून असे अनुमान बांधता येतं की खयाल गायकी त्यावेळी खूप प्रचलित नसावी. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मुगल राज्यकर्त्यांची संगीताला आश्रय देण्याची परंपरा सुरु राहिली. औरंगझेबाच्या काळात खंड पडला पण त्याचा पणतू मुहम्मद शाह “रंगीला” हा संगीताचा मोठा आश्रयदाता होता. एक राजा म्हणून तो फार निष्प्रभ ठरला. आधी थोरले बाजीराव पेशवे, नंतर इराणचा नादिरशहा (जो मयूर सिंहासन घेऊन गेला) ह्या दोघांकडून त्याला मोठे पराभव पत्करायला लागले. पण त्याच्याच काळात खयाल गायकी प्रतिष्ठित आणि नंतर प्रमाण झाली. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">त्याचं मुख्य कारण म्हणजे त्याच्या दरबारातील राज-गायक “मियाँ नेअमत अली खान साहेब” ज्यांनी खयाल गायकीला आजचं स्वरूप दिलं. “सदारंग” ह्या टोपण नावानी लिहिलेल्या त्यांच्या “चीजा” (फ़ारसी चीज़ چیز) आजही गायल्या जातात - अगदी नवशिक्या विद्यार्थ्या पासून ते भारतरत्न पंडित भीमसेन जोशीं सारख्या महान गायकापर्यंत. ते आणि त्यांचे पुतणे अदारंग ह्यांच्या चीजा अनेक रागांचे प्रमाण बनल्या आहेत. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्याच काळात उर्दूला सुद्धा एका प्रतिष्ठित भाषेचा दर्जा मिळाला. नंतर खयाल गायकीची घराणी बनली. जवळपास सर्व घराण्यांचे संस्थापक मुस्लिम असल्यामुळे उर्दू / फ़ारसी / अरबी शब्द शास्त्रीय संगीताच्या परिभाषेत शिरले आणि आज ही तेच शब्द प्रचलित आहेत.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्या शब्दांची यादी खूप मोठी आहे. मैफिल (अरबी महफिल محفل), उस्ताद (अरबी استاد), रियाज (अरबी ریاض), तयारी (अरबी تیّر), तालिम (अरबी त’अलीम تعلیم), वजन (अरबी وزن) अशा शब्दांच्या व्युत्पत्ती बद्दल आश्चर्य वाटायचं काहीच कारण नाही. पण संगीतातला मूलभूत शब्द, आवाज (फ़ारसी آواز) सुद्धा अर्थासकट आला आहे. हरकत बद्दल तर मी आधी लिहिलंच आहे. कदाचित आश्चर्य वाटेल वाचून - दाद (داد) आणि वाह (واہ) शब्ददेखील फ़ारसी मधून अर्थासकट आले आहेत. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">काही व्युत्पत्ती गमतीदार आहेत. “समा बांधला” असा एक प्रयोग केला जातो, तो समा “यह समाँ, समाँ है यह प्यार का” मधला समाँ (अरबी سماں) नाही - त्याचा अर्थ दृश्य. समा (سما) असा अरबीत एक शब्द आहे पण त्याचा अर्थ आहे आकाश. इथे जो शब्द आला आहे त्याचा उगम अरबी मधील “समा’अ” (سماع श्रवण) मध्ये आहे. उर्दू मेहफिलीत श्रोत्यांकरता “सामईन” असं संबोधन तुम्ही ऐकलं असेल. आणि “दर्दी श्रोते” म्हणजे “दुःखी श्रोते” नव्हेत हे सांगायला नकोच. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">संस्कृत मधील स्वर चा अपभ्रंश सूर होण्यास सुद्धा उर्दू / फ़ारसी लिपी कारणीभूत असावी. हा केवळ माझा तर्क आहे. उर्दू मध्ये स्वर लिहिला जाईल سور असा. पण त्या प्रकारे लिहिल्याने उच्चार सूर सुद्धा होऊ शकतो - कारण उर्दू मध्ये लिहिताना बऱ्याच वेळा स्वरचिन्ह गाळली जातात. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मला आवडणारा एक जोडशब्द आहे - हमनवा - म्हणजे आपल्या बरोबर एका सुरात गाणारा. एका प्रसिद्ध पाकिस्तानी मालिकेचे शीर्षक गीत आहे </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">वह हमसफ़र था मगर उस से हमनवाई न थी</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(तो सहप्रवासी होता, पण आमचे सूर जुळले नाहीत)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">नवा (फ़ारसी نوا) म्हणजे आवाज/स्वर/गाणे. त्यावरून शब्द आला नवाज़. म्हणजे वादक. म्हणून सोबतीला (अरबी सुहबत صحبت) “तबला नवाज़” असतात. नवाज़ शब्दाचा दुसरा अर्थ आहे - कृपा करणारा. जो सेवकांवर कृपा करतो तो “बंद:नवाज़”.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्यातल्या बंद: चा मूळ फारसी शब्द आहे बंद, त्या वरून बनलेला फ़ारसीतला दुसरा शब्द बंदिश - हा आता शास्त्रीय संगीतातला अतिशय महत्वाचा शब्द बनला आहे. पण ह्या फारसी शब्दाचा मूळ उगम अतिप्राचीन “Proto-Indo-Iranian” भाषेत असू शकेल कारण संस्कृत मधला “बंधन” हा त्याच्याशी खूप मिळताजुळता शब्द आहे. हा ही केवळ माझा कयास आहे, भाषाशास्त्रज्ञांचं मत वेगळं असू शकेल. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">असो. बराच मोठा लेख झाला आहे. ह्या ही पेक्षा अधिक किती तरी शब्द असतील. पण जे शब्द मला पटकन आठवले त्याबद्दल ही थोडी माहिती. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><br /></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-69470863493044272312021-08-10T21:54:00.003-07:002021-08-10T21:54:24.933-07:00Dark Matter<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-COVTb-QSdi0/YRNWxScSpfI/AAAAAAAAAbs/ASSaxoSAYpwckyRUiHVhK_G7HCFlfsaeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s229/content.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="229" data-original-width="128" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-COVTb-QSdi0/YRNWxScSpfI/AAAAAAAAAbs/ASSaxoSAYpwckyRUiHVhK_G7HCFlfsaeQCLcBGAsYHQ/w112-h200/content.jpeg" width="112" /></a></div><br />Book Review : <b>Dark Matter</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Author : Blake Crouch</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Rating : <b>4 out of 5 stars</b></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-a701f5aa-7fff-c94b-dedf-087db9696229"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been a while since I have read any science fiction. The name of the book, and the praise it received got me curious. <i>Blake Crouch</i> has multiple books on New York Times Bestseller list, and his trilogy has been made into a TV Series on Fox. I haven’t watched it, but this is enough to get me to read one of his books.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story is told from the point of view of Jason Dessen, a quantum physicist who is happily married to Daniela. As the story begins, Jason gets out of his cozy home in a nice Chicago suburb to have a drink with his friend. On his way back, he is kidnapped by a person who seems to know a lot about him, a bit too much to seem possible. His attempts to get out of this situation fail completely. When he wakes up, he finds himself surrounded by total strangers, who on the other hand seem to know him very well, but what they know about him is not at all familiar to him. It takes a while for him (and the readers) to figure out what’s going on.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is just the first half of the book, but it would be inappropriate for me as a reviewer to give any more details about the plot devices used by the author. Unfortunately, many other reviews on the web clearly spell them out. Now, it’s possible that many readers, especially SciFi readers, may easily guess what the underlying scientific premise is. Still, I would prefer to not spell it out.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first half of the book is very captivating. It’s written very well, and draws the reader in. The suspense builds up, and we can feel what Jason feels. The characters are well developed and their interactions are authentic. A good science fiction also needs to be a good fiction and the first few chapters start with a great promise.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That promise is kept all the way till the end as far as writing is concerned. Along the way, difficulties arise in the plot because the author boxes himself in a situation from which there is really no convincing way out. It remains an engaging and mind-bending story, but fails to wow us. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most science fiction has to transcend existing laws and knowledge. For example, without hyper-space how can authors make their protagonists travel at a speed faster than light? This book takes such liberties with the speculative theories that are in fashion currently. That’s perfectly fine, in spite of a few logical holes in the plot. The liberties taken with the laws of physics is not the real issue, rather how they are used to construct a plot, a plot that has no satisfying resolution.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I enjoyed this book. It's good fiction and good science fiction. Although it’s not completely satisfying, it’s a page turner of sorts. In spite of the concerns I outlined above, it still gets my recommendation.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-36398635545637397362021-07-11T12:50:00.001-07:002021-07-11T12:50:52.469-07:00Rubaai-si <p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">रुबाईसी क्रमांक १६</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-452d0b7a-7fff-f426-d4ab-05a0652d2306"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wrote something after a long time. It’s Rubaai in spirit and in the rhyming scheme. But Rubai in Farsi and Urdu demand only a few very specific meters. I don’t see a reason to be restricted by them and would prefer to use whatever meter works better. So I am going to call this रुबाईसी (रुबाई जैसी). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">गीतांत कोकिळेच्या आवाज तूच आहेस </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मोरास नर्तनाचा जो बाज तूच आहेस </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">सृष्टीत चालणाऱ्या सगळ्या अखंड नाट्यांस </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">तालात बांधणारा पखवाज तूच आहेस </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Inspired by a Meer Anees rubaai : https://www.rekhta.org/rubaai/gulshan-men-sabaa-ko-justujuu-terii-hai-meer-anees-rubaai?lang=hi)</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-78674515561180422762021-07-03T11:11:00.004-07:002021-07-03T11:11:30.029-07:00Aamhi Doghi<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-whqF2ZfCQMw/YOCYtyc8sBI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/gtXHppW6ppIU4a_QhjpZ9oCV1GRKw-BDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s286/Aamhi_Doghi_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-whqF2ZfCQMw/YOCYtyc8sBI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/gtXHppW6ppIU4a_QhjpZ9oCV1GRKw-BDgCLcBGAsYHQ/w140-h200/Aamhi_Doghi_Poster.jpg" width="140" /></a></div><br /><b>Movie Review: Aamhi Doghi</b>
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Director: Pratima Joshi</span><span id="docs-internal-guid-9452197e-7fff-7e7b-4a51-700a67193976"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Genre: Drama</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Language: Marathi</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Starring: Priya Bapat, Mukta Barve</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Released: 2018
<b>My Rating: 7 out of 10</b></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Gauri Deshpande (1942-2003)</i> is one of the best Marathi authors ever. In my opinion, she is the most underrated literary figure and deserves much wider fame. I haven’t read all her stories, but whatever I have read is phenomenal. Her stories, that I have read, are very character focused, and all those characters are interesting and off the beaten path. Even in short stories, she could paint a multi-dimensional character in just a few strokes. Her stories, almost always, eschew any melodrama and still have the power to affect you. Once you read them, it’s impossible to forget them. One reason is her language that can be shocking in its honesty and outspokenness.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, I know I am writing a movie review and not a book review. But this is perhaps the only screen adaptation of her work. So giving the background is necessary.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I haven't read the original story “<i>Paus aalaa mothaa”</i>, so I cannot comment on the differences between the story and the movie. Of course there are some changes as the story in the movie happens in the present time, but they are cosmetic. There could be other changes, but the characters and the story, both are still in <i>Gauri Deshpande</i>’s signature style.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the movie title suggests, this is the story of Savitri or Savi (<i>Priya Bapat</i>) and Amala or Ammi (<i>Mukta Barve</i>). Actually, it’s more a story about Savi, often narrated in her own voice. Savi has lost her mother when she was very young. Her father, a wealthy lawyer, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jagdish Sardesai (<i>Kiran Karmarkar</i>) raises her to be a strong minded person. “We are practical, not emotional fools”, is their mantra. Savi’s life takes a very unexpected turn when one day her father comes home from a trip with a woman, and unceremoniously announces that she is his new wife. The woman, Ammi, is only a few years older than Savi. They are very different individuals. Savi is an extraordinarily bright student, always at the top of her class, winning gold medals. Ammi, on the other hand, is completely uneducated and can barely read or write.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After a few days, Savi warms up to Ammi. As a teenager she is rebellious. Her and her father’s curtness eventually ruins the father-daughter relationship. Savi moves away from home for education with the intention of never returning back. The rest of the movie shows her personal development, and evolution of her past and future relationships.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a character study, like most of Gauri Dshpande’s work. Presentation of such movies depends on the script and the acting. The direction by Pratima Joshi is competent. This is her debut, and I am looking forward to more movies from her. The script is good, but the dialogues are average, not great. The strength of the movies is the actors and every single actor has done justice to their roles.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The main actors deserve special praise. Both Priya Bapat and Mukta Barve have many well known and successful movies on their resume. Mukta Barve is a seasoned actress and perhaps with the best acting skills of the Marathi actresses today. She is also a fantastic stage actress, I have watched one of her plays. Priya Bapat was amazing in Kaksparsh, an unforgettable movie. There she didn’t have a lot of dialogues, here she does most of the talking. She also has to play the character as a teenager as well as a grown up young woman. She doesn’t really look like any teenager, in spite of the makeup. The period of her growing up also feels much more in the past, so there are some weak points in an otherwise good movie.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I highly recommend this movie. I missed it when it came out. Thankfully it’s available on Amazon Prime. It may not be a typical family movie, but it is safe to watch with your kids, like most Marathi movies are. I think even people who cannot understand Marathi might enjoy it.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><br />
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Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-27437853814613970162021-06-05T12:41:00.000-07:002021-06-05T12:41:10.637-07:00आपका क्या होगा जनाब ए आली<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once in a while, Hindi movie songs can throw an expected pleasant surprise.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3bf7f3e8-7fff-bad7-41ce-8373ccfccd1a"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On gaana.com, Riya’s Retro podcast was playing a song from Amitabh Bachchan’s “लावारिस”, a movie I remember not liking much. “मेरे अंगने में” was a huge hit then. This particular song, Kishore Kumar’s “आपका क्या होगा जनाब ए आली” became a hit too, but I really did not care for it. I have never played any of these songs on my own. Lyrics of this one are by the producer-director Prakash Mehra.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now Prakash Mehra, one of the most commercially successful directors, being a lyricist is not a big surprise. He has written a few songs, and some were hits. For example, “सलाम-ए-इश्क़” from “मुक़द्दर का सिकंदर”, or “मंज़िलें अपनी जगह हैं ” from “शराबी”. What took me by surprise was the lyrics of the antara.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आप भी मेरी तरह इन्सान की औलाद हैं</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आप मुँह माँगी दुआ हम अनसुनी फ़रियाद है</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">वो जिन्हें सारा ज़माना समझे लावारिस यहाँ</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आप जैसे ज़ालिमों के ज़ुल्म की ईजाद हैं</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(ईजाद == creation)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, that’s a Rubaai structure for the antara! Something Sahir has done on many occasions. And Prakash Mehra’s effort is not bad at all. Nothing great. But ok enough. Just like his other songs. The second antara also has a Rubaai. Having noticed the Rubaai structure, I decided to check if it is in any meter. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it is indeed metrically correct. Now that’s a pleasant surprise! It’s not a meter prescribed for Rubaai, but it’s a very common meter used in Urdu for ghazal and Hindi movie songs. It’s called रमल मुसम्मन महज़ूफ. It goes 2 1 2 2 / 2 1 2 2 / 2 1 2 2 / 2 1 2. The Marathi version of a metrically equivalent वृत्त is named कालगंगा. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Urdu the most famous example would be the very first ghazal of Ghalib’s Deewaan - “नक़्श फरियादी है”. And, one example of a famous Hindi movie in this same meter is “आप की आँखों में कुछ महके हुए से ख़्वाब हैं” by Gulzar.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finding a Rubaai like antara with a correct meter in a song written by Prakash Mehra, a small and nice surprise for a weekend.</span></p><br /></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-91084829619388714992021-03-24T22:22:00.000-07:002021-03-24T22:22:56.508-07:00Knives Out<span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FVPunfc5vj8/YFwXj0RiBMI/AAAAAAAAAQo/ydnEpdNNcMgFrR6eFy4_981RhK0i21JcgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/MV5BMGUwZjliMTAtNzAxZi00MWNiLWE2NzgtZGUxMGQxZjhhNDRiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjU1NzU3MzE%2540._V1_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1382" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FVPunfc5vj8/YFwXj0RiBMI/AAAAAAAAAQo/ydnEpdNNcMgFrR6eFy4_981RhK0i21JcgCLcBGAsYHQ/w135-h200/MV5BMGUwZjliMTAtNzAxZi00MWNiLWE2NzgtZGUxMGQxZjhhNDRiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjU1NzU3MzE%2540._V1_.jpg" width="135" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><b>Movie Review : Knives Out</b></span></div></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-d900d575-7fff-c12c-a9f2-acab48712b37"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Released : 2019</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Director: Rian Johnson</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Genre: Mystery</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Christopher Plummer</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Rating: 8 out of 10</b></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“<i>Knives Out</i>” is a recent movie that feels like such a welcome blast from the past. A movie that singularly fits the “Mystery” genre and will remind you of none other than <i>Agatha Christie</i>. I had nearly forgotten how enjoyable such stories are.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The mystery here is about the death of a rich and famous author, Harlan Thrombey (<i>Christopher Plummer</i>). It seems like he killed himself by slicing his own throat with a knife. (Now that might perhaps be the rarest type of suicide.) He had a large family, with children and grand-children. As the pair of cops question them, we learn that many of them could be the suspects, including the central character of the story, the young nurse, Marta Cabrera (<i>Ana de Armas</i>). Joining the cops is a detective, Benoit Blanc (<i>Daniel Craig</i>). Yes, with a French name, interesting mannerisms, distinct style of speaking and all that. Alas, no mustache. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The story has all the standard, and beloved elements of a classic mystery. A rich estate, squabbling members of a large family, many suspects with motivations, questionable details around the death. The approach is also familiar. We know more than the detectives - while the characters are telling a version to the detectives, the director tells us what really happened. So we know who is lying and about what. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like any good mystery, this is a bit more than just a whodunit, even though that is the main plot line. How it happened and why Detective Blanc is involved are also unknown to us. The additional minor details about the characters are not novel but amusing nonetheless. Their interactions are often filled with dialogues that make a political and social commentary on the current state of affairs. Just to be sure, all that is kept as a sideshow. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Visually, the movie is beautiful, and tends oh so slightly towards the noir style. And that’s a good thing. The movie never turns dark, as has become the norm lately. It remains faithful to classic mystery style. There is no gore, no boo moments. We like and dislike characters, but we never get too emotionally involved with any. There is no melodrama, no emotional manipulations. The movie absolutely never stops being fun and a puzzle to solve, with many memorable scenes along the way.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In such an approach, the screenplay becomes extremely important. It takes skills to figure what frames to show in only the two hours available. They need to be just enough to keep us guessing and not figure it out. And at the same time, be more than enough to make us accept the resolution as perfectly valid and not make it feel like a forced or cheap trick. When accomplished masterfully, as done here, it feels like reading a good book.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not a character centric movie, but capable actors of course help. Ana de Armas, a relative newcomer and Daniel Craig play their roles perfectly, and get more screen time than others such as Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon and Christopher Plummer.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is such an enjoyable movie. It uses all the familiar motifs and still feels fresh. It stays completely committed to present us a mystery with a very satisfying ending. I highly recommend it. It’s correctly rated PG-13 and should be fine for teenagers.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sL-9Khv7wa4" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-1343058259288675312021-01-04T17:38:00.003-08:002021-01-04T18:06:01.146-08:00अफलातुन<p style="text-align: justify;"><b> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">अफलातुन !</span></b></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-fdb6e0ad-7fff-5473-15e7-1f2f24639bf5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आजच्या काळात सांस्कृतिक देवाण-घेवाण अगदी सहज होते. फार पूर्वी दोन संस्कृती एकमेकींना भेटायचे प्रमुख कारण दुर्दैवाने युद्धच असावे. विजेत्यांची संस्कृती पराभूतांवर लादली जात असेलही, तरी काही गोष्टी मनापासून स्विकारल्या जायच्या. वेगवेगळ्या विषयांचे ज्ञान अशा वेळी एका समाजातून दुसऱ्या समाजात पसरले गेले, आणि क्वचित प्रसंगी नावे देखील. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alexander The Great हा Macedon नावाच्या एका ग्रीक प्रांताचा राजपुत्र. वयाच्या विसाव्या वर्षी त्याने सुरु केलेल्या आक्रमणातून इतिहासातील एक विस्तृत साम्राज्य उभे झाले. Alexander ने नरसंहार खूप केला तरी त्याने जे प्रदेश जिंकले तिथे त्याचे नाव मात्र लोकं लावतात. आज ही सिकंदर हे एक नाव म्हणून प्रचलित आहे. “मुक़द्दर का सिकंदर”, “जो जीता वही सिकंदर“ अशा तऱ्हेने सुद्धा ह्या नावाचा वापर वाक्प्रचारात आणि काव्यात दिसतो.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">याद रख सिकंदर के हौसले तो आली थे</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">जब गया था दुनिया से दोनों हाथ खाली थे</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>(चढता सूरज धीरे धीरे ढलता है ढल जाएगा - क़व्वाली)</i></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alexander ला The Great अशी उपाधी आपण लावतो ती योग्य असो नसो, त्याचा गुरु Aristotle मात्र महान होता यात तिळमात्र ही शंका नाही. जसं Alexander चा सिकंदर झाला, तसा Aristotle चं नाव अरबी भाषेत “अरस्तु” (أرسطو) असं झालं. जर आजच्या काळातही Aristotle च्या बुद्धिमत्तेने, विचारांमुळे आपण थक्क होतो, तर त्या काळात त्याचा प्रभाव त्या वेळच्या विचारवंतांवर पडला त्यात काही आश्चर्य नाही. ज्या ज्या प्रदेशात Alexander चं साम्राज्य पसरलं तिथे Aristotle ची Philosophy सुद्धा विचारांवर राज्य करू लागली. त्यावरून आधी अरबी आणि नंतर उर्दू/हिंदी मध्ये “फ़लसफ़ा” शब्द आला. इस्लामच्या सुवर्णयुगात बग़दाद मध्ये Aristotle चा अभ्यास आवर्जून व्हायचा आणि त्याचा उल्लेख अतिशय आदराने “The First Teacher” असा केला जायचा.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aristotle चा गुरु Plato ही तितकाच महान होता. जशी Alexander ची युद्धनीती अजूनही अभ्यासली जाते, तसा Plato चा अभ्यास आजही बऱ्याच क्षेत्रात होतो - उदा. Political Science.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्या Plato चं नाव आधी अरबीत, नंतर उर्दू मध्ये आले ते अफ़लातूँ (أفلاطون) असं. मराठीत त्यातल्या अनुस्वाराचा पूर्ण न झाला आणि शब्द झाला अफलातून.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plato ची बद्धिमत्ता एव्हढी होती की, हे केवळ नाव न राहता एक विशेषण सुद्धा झाले. आपण मराठी मध्ये विशेषण म्हणूनच “अफलातून” चा वापर करतो, आणि तो “विलक्षण”, “अलौकिक” अशा चांगल्या अर्थासाठी.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">उर्दू मध्येही तसा वापर होतो. केवळ Plato च नाव म्हणून सुद्धा वापरतात. क्वचित ठिकाणी “फ़लातूँ” असाही शब्द काव्यात आढळतो - कदाचित वृत्तात बसवण्यासाठी हा बदल असावा. ह्या शब्दाचा वापर टोमणा देण्यासाठी सुद्धा उर्दू मध्ये करतात. उदा. “तुम अपने आपको अफ़लातूँ का बच्चा मत समझो”. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">उर्दूचे महाकवी अल्लामा इक़्बाल ह्यांच्या “औरत” ह्या प्रसिद्ध लघुकवितेत त्यांनी फ़लातूँ आणि अफ़लातूँ ह्या दोन्हींचा वापर केला आहे.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मुकालमात-ए-फ़लातूँ न लिख सकी लेकिन</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">उसी के शोले से टूटा शरार-ए-अफ़लातूँ</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Although she didn’t write the Dialogues of Plato,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From her flames came out the spark of Plato)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plato च्या Dialogues चा सन्दर्भ देण्यासाठी इंग्लिश मध्ये भाषांतर लिहिलं आहे.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">सिकंदर आणि अफ़लातूँ, ही दोन्ही <span id="docs-internal-guid-1d662857-7fff-6b22-285c-e6f9f67b3bb3"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">नावं</span></span> उर्दू/हिंदी/मराठी मध्ये रुळली, पण का कुणास ठाऊक, अरस्तु (Aristotle) आणि सुक्रातु (Socrates) ही नावं रुळली नाहीत. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अफलातून सारखाच, कौतुक करण्यासाठी आपण ‘कमाल’ शब्द वापरतो. तो सुद्धा अरबी मधून आला आहे. त्याचा अर्थ “निपुणता”, “पूर्णता” असला तरी वापर “पूर्णता”शी निगडित जास्त होतो. उदा. उर्दू मधले मुकम्मल, कामिल वगैरे. तशाच उद्देशाने वापरला जाणारा “ज़बरदस्त” शब्द ही फ़ारसी मधून आला आहे - ज़बर (बलशाली) आणि दस्त (हात) ह्या पासून बनलेला जोडशब्द.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मराठी शब्दांच्या व्युत्पत्ती मध्ये, अफलातून शब्दाची व्युत्पत्ती सर्वार्थाने अफलातून आहे. :-) </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-47849215896585261402020-12-29T22:20:00.002-08:002021-01-16T18:44:12.461-08:00Mama’s Last Hug<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g-ADxYpHo74/YAOkYQN8g4I/AAAAAAAAv70/0eStHXbNlgA70fdaL9y7g1AJS9oJ68aeQCNcBGAsYHQ/s193/MamasLastHug.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="128" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g-ADxYpHo74/YAOkYQN8g4I/AAAAAAAAv70/0eStHXbNlgA70fdaL9y7g1AJS9oJ68aeQCNcBGAsYHQ/w133-h200/MamasLastHug.jpeg" width="133" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br />Book Review : Mama’s Last Hug
</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Author : Frans de Waal
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars - MUST READ</b></span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-818989ff-7fff-2773-9507-5f1c51317762"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The complete title of the book is ‘<i>Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves</i>’.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me start the review with the video from which the book got its title.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>The last hug </b></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/INa-oOAexno" width="560"></iframe> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It feels really weird to ask if animals have emotions. Of cours</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">e they do! Ask any pet owner, ask anyone who has seen some of the countless animal videos circulating on social media. So why write a book (or multiple) books, trying to prove what seems as obvious as saying, the sky is blue. The reason, the author explains, is to dig deeper. What kind of emotions? Are their emotions similar to ours? Is there a purpose for these emotions? And so on.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr Waal has spent years studying this subject, and has written multiple books, highly regarded and widely read. I had heard of his perhaps most famous book, “<i>Chimpanzee Politics</i>”, but this is the first book I read that was written by him. Now, I am definitely going to try to read his other books as well.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Throughout the book, Dr Waal gives interesting accounts of experiment after experiment, each one making it crystal clear that animals feel, and have emotions. Feelings are not the same as emotions, something that may be obvious to people who study sociology and psychology, but I understood clearly from reading this book. The real insight is provided not only by the experiments, but also by the author’s explanation of how these emotions structure our lives and our societies. The emotions of compassion, revenge, empathy, hunger for power etc all are crucial factors that govern our decisions regarding everything from health care systems to legal institutions.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of the book is about primates, and chimpanzees in particular, which is what Dr Waal has specialized in. After reading his accounts and explanations, I can agree with him when he says, it’s really hard to draw the line between them and us. We are so similar. At the same time, he also cautions against projecting our feelings onto them. We often talk about animals, especially our pets, as if they are humans. In spite of that, and paradoxically, we are also surprised when we see animals reacting like us! Neither is a scientific approach. This book, as the complete title says, is as much about us, as it is about animals. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another new insight I learned here was how similar animals' body language can be with ours, including facial expressions. Just as our facial muscles pull our lips to reveal complex emotions, so do the animals. A smile can be because of happiness or it can be a nervous grin, both in humans and in primates. It’s just one of the many indications that their emotions are just as complex as ours. This complexity makes two opposite emotions, just two sides of the same coin. An ability to feel empathy is needed not just to help others, but also to be cruel and hurt others. He gives many accounts of not-so-good behavior by the primates.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book goes much further than that. It’s very likely that for many readers, it won’t come as a surprise to know that animals have joy, fear, empathy and so on. But what about feelings that are indicative of a more complex morality such as guilt, or shame? It seems animals do have those feelings! As the later chapters explore, the real questions are, how complex are their emotions, do they have free will like us, are they rational maximizers, can they be capitalists and so on.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a beautiful book. Written in such a simple to understand style, and yet at the same time asking and often answering many deep philosophical questions. It draws from years of research of many, including Darwin. I very highly recommend it, giving it my “Must Read” rating. It will amaze you, delight you, inform you and make you self introspect. It’s a brilliant book. Read it.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the end, I will leave you with this amazing video featuring the author, that I had seen many years ago, may be on “60 minutes”. It’s often mentioned in the management training :-) about fairness. Enjoy!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Fairness</i></b></span></p></span><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/meiU6TxysCg" width="560"></iframe></div>
Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-198709630060501262020-11-20T22:27:00.003-08:002020-11-20T22:27:36.257-08:00Fool me twice<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Tuesday, November the 3rd 2020, as I sat eagerly to watch the results of the Presidential Election, very quickly my hope of seeing the country get rid of Trump turned into despair. In the first few minutes, the Florida results were encouraging. Then Miami-Dade county reported and the shock I felt will remain forever etched in my memory. Hillary Clinton won that district by 35 points, and still lost Florida. Biden won it by around 15 points or so, and it was immediately clear that he is not going to win Florida.</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-30e19ca0-7fff-6768-b6ed-cce14307c9d7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As they say, it was “deja vu all over again”. Four years ago, it was Florida that delivered the first shock and things got progressively worse throughout the night - for people like me who wanted to see the country rejecting Trump. This year, it seemed like a replay of the same movie. Both times, the pain became worse because I wasn’t prepared for it. The polls had left me no doubt that Trump was going to be defeated, and both times, the polls got it horribly wrong.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2016, when Trump won, the polls became a joke in the eyes of the most. I was also surprised how the polls got it wrong. I decided to spend time figuring out why. As I studied the issue, I realized that I didn’t really understand what the polls were actually saying. Of course, the polls got many things wrong, but their error was pretty much in line with their historical performance.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even in 2012, the polls had underestimated Obama’s chances of winning reelection. But they got the direction right, and hence the polling error did not get too much attention. The polls were actually not as wrong in 2016, but the error margin was bigger than the slim vote margin that went in Trump’s favor. More importantly, Trump’s margin of victory was far less than the “undecided” percentage of voters reported by polls. That was the key to understand why we all though the polls were wrong. As the election neared, there was a clear movement of these “undecided” in Trump’s favor, which many missed, including the media and me. Then there was the last minute bombshell by Comey which sealed the deal, and there were few polls after that announcement. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many theories such as “the shy Trump voters” have been debunked in many studies since the 2016 debacle. The real reason, the pollsters argued, was that they didn’t account for the correct proportion of rural voters, people without a college degree etc. In other words, their sampling technique needed refinement to capture a better representation of the electorate.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I defended the polls and prediction models such as the one at FiveThirtyEight. I argued that a few swing states, going in Trump’s favor by a very slim margin, is definitely within their prediction of a 30% probability of Trump’s win. In life, we shouldn't be surprised by events with 30% probability actually happening. For example, we are not at all surprised to see a pair of dice rolling to 6 on each, which has a much less probability (less than 3%). </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This time, I thought I was interpreting the polls correctly. The polls were indeed much better in 2018 midterms. In 2020 as time progressed, they tended to move more strongly in favor of Biden. That was not the case 4 years ago when the polls were fluctuating a lot. There were hardly any “undecided” in the polls this time, and Biden’s margin was much much higher than Clinton. To top it, the polls were consistent with each other, across different pollsters, across states etc. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I made <a href="https://abhayavachat.blogspot.com/2020/10/my-prediction-for-2020-election.html">my prediction for a Biden win,</a> and doubled down on it by giving a 50-50 chance for a landslide victory by Biden. I even offered the bets with specific odds. Although I did not lose the bets, and got a few things right, I was wrong about lot more things.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now the way ballots were counted, made it seem like a close and tough win. Actually it was quite a comfortable victory for Biden. When Trump won it last time, many called it a “clear mandate”. Biden’s 2020 electoral count is going to be the same as Trump in 2016. Biden’s popular vote margin (of close to 7 million votes) is even larger than what Clinton got. By the way, my estimation of the margin was quite right. Biden’s margin in swing states is much much higher than what Trump had in 2016. Finally, Biden won back the Blue states Clinton lost, and flipped 2 Red states in addition. So by any yardstick, this is a very nice victory. Just the way counting was done, made it look like a tough win.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In spite of that, I have to say that my prediction was quite wrong.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of the arguments I made were based on eroding support for Trump. That was completely incorrect. Trump got even more votes than he got the last time (close to 10 million more), and was able to get more votes from Blacks and Latinos than he got in 2016. There is a lot for me to understand there.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mainly, I wasn’t predicting just a Biden win. I was giving a 50-50 chance for a landslide. As it turned out, there was really no chance of a landslide. I made that prediction thinking Florida will go to Biden and Texas will be a close loss. This was based on polls. For example in Florida, the polls continued to shift towards Biden as the election neared. Most highly rated polls gave Biden a +5 chance, when the reality was he was -3. That was an astronomically huge miss by the polls. When most swing states are decided by a margin of less than 2%, any poll that can be wrong by 8-10% is worse than being useless.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Florida wasn’t an exception. Iowa, Texas, North Carolina - none were as close as the polls claimed to be. And wherever Biden won, the polls had estimated a much higher margin.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The common theme in the errors made by the polls was - they underestimated the support for Trump. Just like they did in 2016. Except this time, the pollsters had told us that they have learned from their mistakes and have made the necessary adjustments. If this is how anyone “improves” in their job, they would be fired.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hence, I am declaring that polling is useless for me. Yes, they will try to explain why they got it wrong this time, or how it wasn’t as wrong as we perceive. Yes, they might get it right the next time. But I am not going to trust them again. Ever. And I know, I am not alone. Even though Biden won as was the prediction, many people understand that polls were really inaccurate this time - especially in the purple swing states where they matter the most. The entire polling industry has lost its trust. Even if they get it right the next time, it won’t increase their trustworthiness any more than throwing a dice.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nah. I did not make a good prediction. Live and learn. Well, at least I won’t waste any time and suffer heartburn in the next election, by engaging in studying polls and coming up with a prediction model. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-52858283545785156972020-10-12T22:59:00.004-07:002020-10-15T00:43:41.538-07:00My Prediction For 2020 Election<p style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The case for an epic landslide Democratic win</b></span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-167b1f97-7fff-3d1d-961c-9e6826015e44" style="font-family: inherit;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>The 2020 Presidential election is only a few days away. Many questions are being discussed. Will there be a peaceful transfer of power if Biden wins? Will the polls be wrong again for predicting a Trump loss? And so on. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>What is rarely mentioned is the possibility of an epic loss for Trump. Some believe that Teflon Trump will emerge victorious as he did in the 2016 primaries and eventual election. Some believe that his die hard supporters (or cult, as it’s often called) are the most loyal of all. Some believe polls are no longer reliable. And so on.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Almost an year ago, in late 2019, in my friend circles, I went out on a limb and outlined my prediction for a “yuuuge loss” for Donald Trump. At that time, it was even more of a contrarian opinion. Incumbents have an advantage. A good economy is a virtual guarantee that the incumbent will win again. Still I had my reasons to make that prediction.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>But then the pandemic happened. Since I found it completely out of the “analyzable” space, I retracted my prediction, saying, I have no idea how this will play out. Especially with the rapid spread, and both the candidates being over 70 and in the high risk group, in April I had no idea what to expect going forward.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Now, I am again comfortable to reissue my prediction with an updated probability. Trump is going to suffer an epic loss.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Before I give my reasons, let’s define what my prediction means.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>What’s in epic loss? I consider getting less than 200 electoral votes as epic loss. Or a blowout. So my prediction is Trump does not win more than 200 electoral votes.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>How confident am I in making this prediction? Since the future is unknowable, we can only talk in terms of probabilities. I give it a 50-50 chance. Now before you smirk, let me restate. This is my estimate for the probability that Trump loses the election AND fails to win over 200 electoral votes. The probability for a general Biden win is much higher in my estimate. In other words, I am willing to have a bet with a friend, where if my prediction comes true, I win a dollar and if Trump gets more than 200 electoral votes I give them a dollar even if Trump still loses the election. For a general election result, I am willing to give a 1 to 3 payout ratio. Meaning, if Trump wins, I give them 3 dollars, and if Trump loses, I get only 1 dollar.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>What are my reasons for such a high level of confidence?</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Here is how I divide the eligible voters into distinct subsets.</span></span></p><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who always come out to vote, and vote Democratic.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who always come out to vote, and vote Republican.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who always come out to vote, and vote based on their views on that specific election - the Independents.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who need motivation to come out to vote and if they do, they vote Democratic. </span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who need motivation to come out to vote and if they do, they vote Republican.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who need motivation to come out, but may vote either way depending on the election.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Net new additions to the voter pool based on old people dying, and young people becoming eligible to vote and will vote. Some may vote for Republicans, some may vote for Democrats.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>People who never come out to vote. Unfortunately there are such irresponsible people in every democratic country.</span></span></p></li></ol><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Which groups are more important in deciding the election? Without knowing the sizes, it’s hard to say. For example, if group 1 or 2 is 90% of the country, it really doesn’t matter what other groups feel or do. Thankfully, that’s not the case.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Since we don’t know the absolute sizes of each subset, we can then focus on estimating the change - the delta - between the last election and this. We can ask how do we expect these groups to behave differently in this election than what they did the last time. It’s a valid strategy to ask that question, as at least one candidate is the same in both the elections. So we can frame this question with respect to Trump. </span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Let’s examine one at a time and focus only on the delta.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 1. By definition this group will come out and will vote Democrat, so no delta.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 2. By definition this group will come out and will vote Republican, so no delta.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 3. This group is more interesting to speculate about. Remember, this group will come out and vote. If they vote the same as last time, there is no delta. I am very certain that’s not the case. This is a referendum on the incumbent. Last time, some from this group voted for Clinton, and some voted for Trump. If someone was willing to vote for Clinton last time, I am sure they will vote against Trump again. Those who voted for Trump in this group, are more likely to change their minds. Not all. But some or many. Remember again, this group doesn’t represent the cult of Trump in any meaningful way. All of that is accounted for in group 2. We are only interested in the delta. So, I am arguing, this group represents a big negative delta for Trump. In other words, far more people in this group will change from Trump to “no on Trump”. Please note, not all have to change their mind this way. Some might actually change their vote from Democratic in 2016, to Trump in 2020. I am speculating about the aggregate, not the individual. So “net negative” is the operative word.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 4. This was a strong reason for Clinton’s loss. Many people who would have voted for a Democratic candidate, simply did not show up. This is a combination of die hard Sanders supporters and people who disliked Clinton. I am arguing they have a very strong motivation to come out and vote for the Democrats. They see Trump’s record. They see what’s happening with the Supreme Court. Biden is not as disliked as Clinton. Again, not all will come out to vote. We are just looking at the delta. This is a positive delta for the Democrats. No doubts about it.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 5. The reverse of group 4. This will be another big negative delta for Trump. How many are going to be really enthusiastic to come and re-elect Trump? A reminder once again. The cult of Trump is already accounted for in group 2. Coming back to this group of “likely Republicans”, will all of them come out to vote again for Trump? When there is no Clinton to defeat? Just like group 4 sitting at home in 2016, a section of this group will sit this one out. This is another negative delta for Trump.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 6. For someone who needs a strong motivation to come out and vote for someone (either Democrat or Republican), what’s their motivation this time? If they were not motivated last time to vote for Trump, they are not going to be motivated this time! In fact some may be motivated to vote against Trump. That’s why I am giving this a net negative delta for Trump.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 7. Another interesting group to speculate about. But maybe easier to get an agreement on. New young voters - which way will they go? Is there any doubt at all? Seriously! This is another net negative delta for Trump. And perhaps the biggest delta in percentage terms, when compared to the group size.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Group 8. By definition, there will be no delta here.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>So there you have it. I do not know the size of any delta. I don't need to. Because none of the subsets is generating a positive delta for Trump. If there was a positive delta, then the question of the size becomes important. Because one positive delta can in theory override all other negative deltas. But I am confident that each delta is negative. Some mildly negative, to some wildly negative. Hence my prediction, and the confidence.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>You are going to see this delta affecting “down ballot” candidates. This is not only going to go against Trump in a big way, but against Republicans in general. While I don’t think Lindsay Graham will actually lose, or that Texas will actually turn blue this time, both are a lot closer to happening than last time. As a side effect, Democrats have a good chance of getting complete control - the Presidency (high probability), the House (near certainty) and the Senate (slightly better than a 50-50 chance).</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><b><TL;DR></b></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>All this can be simplified into one question. Has Trump won more supporters than what he has lost? If you think he has converted more to support him than what he has lost, feel free to have a bet with me. Remember again, don’t just look at his cult. It’s the delta that’s going to decide the election, like it does in all the elections. His cult has not grown. But the size of his detractors has grown considerably.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Last time, he won with a razor thin margin. That margin got amplified, as it does in many elections, due to the structure of the electoral college. But that works in the other way too! If he loses that razor thin margin, the electoral map will look a lot different this time. I am betting, since he will lose a lot more than thin margin, it’s going to look like a blowout - less than 200 electoral votes.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">UPDATE October 15, 2020</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A couple of friends pointed out that I have not called out some of the data points clearly. So here is more explanation - no change in the forecast.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, this way of doing analysis based on speculating about delta, is valid only for incumbents, which is the case here. Second all the deltas must be all negative, or positive else, the size of the deltas matter, and those are really hard to estimate.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Third, it’s valid only in cases where the margin was not high when the last election was won by the incumbent. I should have called out the third point very clearly. For example, President Obama did not get as many votes in his reelection bid, as he got the first time. Still he won the second time. In spite of negative delta. But his margin of victory was large enough to cushion it. That’s not the case with Trump.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s look at the data.
In Michigan, Trump won by an extremely small margin of 11K votes. That’s 0.23% of the votes. That margin is extraordinarily hard to defend, especially when you see that, in 2016 all other candidates (Green Part, Libertarian etc) got 5% of the vote (250K). So the chances of negative delta making Trump lose Michigan is very high. Note that Michigan had voted Democratic in the previous 6 elections. So 2016 with such a thin margin is not a secular change, but an outlier.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Wisconsin, Trump won by 23K votes, which is about 0.75%. Third party candidates won 5%. And this state has voted Democratic for the previous 7 elections. This was again an outlier, which is very hard to defend for Trump.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Pennsylvania, Trump won by 44K votes, which is also about 0.75%. Third party candidates got over 3%. This state has also voted Democratic in the previous 6 elections.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the basis for speculating about the deltas. A margin of less than 1% in a Democratic stronghold is too thin to stand on for a Republican candidate.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly, Trump's margin of victory in other states was - Florida 1.2% and both Arizona and North Carolina less than 4%. None of these states is reliably Republican.</span></div>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-36652416789296511992020-09-06T23:12:00.003-07:002020-09-06T23:18:51.517-07:00इब्लीस कार्ट<span id="docs-internal-guid-ee4d5203-7fff-a0e8-b44c-234c2f1af47f"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आपण मराठी बोलतो की फारसी? 😀</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">आता हेच वाक्य बघा. . </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>इब्लीस कार्ट! रोज ह्याच्या सफेद सदऱ्यावर शाईचे डाग आणि खाकी असूनही खराब झालेले दप्तर. </b></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्यातले किती शब्द फारसी वा अरबी मधून आपण घेतले असं तुम्हाला वाटतं? आश्चर्य वाटेल उत्तर वाचून.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>रोज</b> - फारसी मधला रोज़ (روز) म्हणजे दिन, आणि त्यावर आधारित इतर शब्द आपण जसेच्या तसे घेतले. उदा. रोजगार, दररोज इत्यादि. केवळ माहितीसाठी, फारसी मध्ये वर्षाच्या पहिल्या दिवसाला “नौ रोज़” (نوروز) म्हणतात.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>सफेद</b> - हाही शब्द फारसी (سفید) मधून आपण जसाच्या तसा अर्थासकट (श्वेत, पांढरा) घेतला. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><b>शाई</b></span> - सफ़ेद च्या विरुद्ध फारसीतला रंग “सियाह” (سیاه) अर्थात काळा. “सियाही” (سیاهی) म्हणजे काळिमा आणि शाई (ink).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ह्या दोन्ही शब्दाना एकत्र करून फारसी मध्ये “सियाह-ओ-सफ़ेद” (अर्थ: काळे पांढरे किंवा संपूर्ण) हा जोडशब्द प्रचलित आहे. उर्दू मधील अग्रगण्य कवी, “मीर तक़ी मीर” च्या एका सुप्रसिद्ध ग़ज़ल मधला एक शेर असा आहे</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>याँ के सपीद ओ सियह में हम को दख़्ल जो है सो इतना है </i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>रात को रो रो सुब्ह किया या दिन को जूँ तूँ शाम किया </i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(मीर च्या कविता खूप वेळा बोलीभाषेत असतात)</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>सदरा</b> - अरबी मध्ये “सद्र” (صدر) म्हणजे छाती. (इतर अर्थ आहेत मुख्य, अध्यक्ष, प्रधान वगैरे. उर्दू काव्य संमेलनात हे सम्बोधन तुम्ही नक्की ऐकले असेल). त्या वरून उर्दूत शब्द आला (हा अरबीत सुद्धा असेल कदाचित) - “सद्र:” (صدره ) म्हणजे “छाती झाकणारा”, अर्थात सदरा. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>डाग</b> - उर्दू कवींचा आवडता शब्द दाग़ (داغ) हा फारसीतुन आला आहे. आपणही त्याच अर्थाने वापरतो, फक्त उच्चार बदलून. एवढच नाही, तर आपण त्यावरून “डागळणे” असं अगदी मराठमोळं क्रियापदही बनवलं.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>खाकी</b> - फारसी मध्ये “ख़ाक” (خاک) म्हणजे धूळ, माती, राख. आणि “ख़ाकी” म्हणजे मातीशी संबंधित, आणि रंगाचे नाव देखील. आणि सांगायला नकोच, की English मध्ये सुद्धा हा शब्द आला आणि एका तऱ्हेच्या trouser चं नाव होऊन बसला. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>खराब</b> - अरबी मधला “ख़राब” (خراب) आपण घेतला, जसाच्या तसा, अर्थासकट.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">अशा सर्व शब्दात आपण “ख़” चा उच्चार “ख” असा करतो, एव्हढाच काय तो फरक. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>दप्तर</b> - अरबी मध्ये “दफ़्तर” (دفتر) म्हणजे वही, notebook. हिंदी आणि उर्दूत त्याचा वापर “कार्यालय” म्हणून जास्त करतात आणि आपण करतो शाळकरी मुलांच्या पिशवी साठी!</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">मला, ह्या सर्व शब्दांपेक्षा, ज्याची व्युत्पत्ती अधिक मजेशीर वाटते तो म्हणजे इब्लीस. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>इब्लीस</b> - अरबी मध्ये इब्लीस (ابلیس) म्हणजे Devil. आधी सैतान असा अर्थ लिहिणार होतो पण, तोही शब्द अरबी मधील “अल शैतान” (الشيطان) वरून आला आहे. त्याच संदर्भात, खवीस सुद्धा अरबी मधल्या “ख़बीस” (خبيث) वरून आला आहे. जरी सैतान आणि खवीस भीतीदायक गोष्टींसाठी वापरले जात असले, तरी इब्लीस हा शब्द खास मुलांकरता वापरला जातो, किंवा जायचा. हल्ली किती जणांना हा शब्द माहिती असेल, काय ठाऊक. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">शेवटी, इब्लीस शब्दाच्या संदर्भात मला अतिशय आवडणारा एक शेर </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>अम्न की जब कभी इंसाँ ने क़सम खायी है</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>लब-ए-इब्लीस पे हलकी सी हंसी आयी है</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>- आनंद नारायण मुल्ला</i> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Whenever humans have vowed to bring peace,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A faint smile has crossed the Devil’s lips)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trivia : Anand Narayan Mulla was a judge in Allahabad High Court, a member of Lok Sabha, then a member of Rajya Sabha. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A related post on Marathi etymology : </span></span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://abhayavachat.blogspot.com/2019/10/blog-post.html">हरकत - अरबीतुन मराठीमध्ये</a></span></span></p></span>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-67916971405002137102020-08-02T15:54:00.002-07:002020-10-19T12:15:26.659-07:00A Universe From Nothing<div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BPm12nQdSr8/X43lrSz-ixI/AAAAAAAAtOE/ISR90kCILjA_rNf2SEFxEVY6RepMZavmQCNcBGAsYHQ/s195/content.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="128" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BPm12nQdSr8/X43lrSz-ixI/AAAAAAAAtOE/ISR90kCILjA_rNf2SEFxEVY6RepMZavmQCNcBGAsYHQ/s16000/content.jpeg" /></a></div>Book Review : A Universe From Nothing</b></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Author : Lawrence M. Krauss</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><b>My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars</b></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">The complete title of the book is “<i>A Universe From Nothing : Why there is something rather than nothing</i>”.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Most of the books that aim to explain physics to a lay person are written about prevailing complex theories. Only rarely, a scientist writes a book aimed at a lay person and at the same time, explaining his or her original ideas in theoretical physics. This is one of those rare books.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Theoretical physicist Dr. Krauss has a very clear purpose in writing this book. He wants to prove to us that it is not really necessary to believe in God. Please note the phrasing. This book doesn’t aim to prove that God does not exist. Rather, it argues that, perhaps the most fundamental philosophical and theological question does not require a belief in any supernatural being. That question is, “<i>Why there is something rather than nothing?</i>”.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Now that is a loaded question. First of all, defining “<i>nothing</i>” is not at all straight-forward. More importantly the reasons behind this question, and many different implications around it, will lead to a discussion that is completely out of scope for a blogpost. (Even if I had the competence to explain that, which I clearly don’t have.)</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Superficially, the general premise of that question is, a Creator is needed to create something. Whether you believe in a God as defined by a religion, or you believe in a supernatural spiritual being - whatever that may be, that’s “who” created the Big Bang, or at a more fundamental level - the laws of physics. What Dr Krauss is driving towards is, even that is not necessary. “<i>Something</i>” will always pop out of “nothing”. Because, “<i>nothing</i>” is unstable!</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Now there seems to be a lot of semantic jugglery going on there. Trust me, that's not the case. This is a book about advanced physics, not philosophy. The main argument being, as quantum mechanics predicts and it has been verified, at the sub-atomic level quantum fluctuations can cause “<i>something</i>” to be created out of “<i>nothing</i>”. But can it create a whole new universe?</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">To answer that question, Dr Krauss takes us on a fast paced tour starting with the general theory of relativity, how it predicted a non-static universe and based on Hubble’s observations, an eventual realization of the Big Bang. While these advances were happening in Cosmology, quantum mechanics was being developed and was offering a strikingly non-intuitive understanding of the subatomic world. As we know, these two theories </font>have <span style="font-family: inherit;">not been able to get married to each other, and we do not yet have a theory of everything. Still, Dr Krauss argues that these advances have sufficiently increased our understanding to see that nothing can produce something, even a universe, or infinite parallel universes.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">It’s an argument that’s not easy to grasp, and not at all easy to explain. I am not sure I understood it perfectly. But I can see how it might be, because of Dr Krauss’ efforts. This philosophical argument makes the book stand out from many other popular science books. </font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">Another interesting new aspect I learned here, was about the future of this ever expanding universe. As Dr Krauss explains, many many billions of years from now, future cosmologists would simply not have any evidence that Big Bang happened. All they will be able to see is their local galaxy cluster, as all galaxies would have sped away far enough to be completely undetectable, no matter what technological advances happen. It’s a bleak picture.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit">This is a remarkable book. Dr Krauss has courageously taken the atheist argument to a whole new level and made it reasonably accessible to a layman like me. I had to read a few paragraphs again to make sure I understood them. So it wasn’t a completely smooth reading for me. In spite of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.</font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-50716952185302923782020-04-05T17:46:00.001-07:002020-04-05T17:46:57.354-07:00Conservatives, Liberals and Logic<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These days, “<i>How can they be so illogical?</i>”, is one of the most common questions I hear people asking in exasperation. Sometimes, “<i>illogical</i>” is replaced with “<i>dumb</i>”, “<i>stupid</i>” etc, but the intent is really to question the “abilities of deduction”. The other variants of this question are “<i>How can they be so evil?</i>”, “<i>How can they be so wrong and not know it?</i>” and so on. In this post, I am only going to talk about the “illogical” nature of “them”. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I really find that question funny, because most of the time, people asking that question really don’t know what “Logic” means. Let’s revisit something that all of us have learned in middle school.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Logic helps us decide, given a set of premises, if the conclusion of inferences is correct. In other words, it helps us appraise an argument. Using logic, we can objectively assess an argument as either valid or invalid.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We all learned Geometry in school. Euclid constructed the most beautiful edifice in human knowledge, by starting with extremely simple postulates and using them to prove theorems of increasing complexity. Everything about Euclid’s geometry is absolutely logical.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Except his postulates. They have no logical proof. They are taken as “self evident truths”. For example, one postulates roughly states that it is possible to draw a straight line from any one point to another. There is no way to prove this statement. We assume it to be true and use it for logically proving other theorems. As long as these “axioms” feel trivially true, everyone will be comfortable using them as the starting point.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what if the axiom doesn’t feel trivially true? That indeed was the problem with Euclid’s 5th, and last postulate about parallel lines. This is a big topic, and I can refer you to <a href="https://abhayavachat.blogspot.com/2014/01/euclids-window.html">Euclid’s Window</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. By changing the fifth postulate, mathematicians were able to come with completely new Geometries, that are very different but as logical as Euclidean Geometry. As it turns out, they are far more than mathematical curiosities, and the space in which our stars and galaxies operate, indeed follows non-Euclidean Geometry.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What does all this have to do with conservatives and liberals and their logical or illogical arguments? The point is, if the starting premise is different, then the logical argument would lead to a very different conclusion. Duh, you say. OK. So here is the crux. There is simply NO way to logically choose a premise. That whole thing - the inferences, the deductions - that whole logic thing, is what comes afterwards. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, it’s totally possible that “they” are making a very logical argument, but “their” premises are vastly different than yours. Here is what you probably don’t want to hear - “their” premises are not worse or better than your premises - they are just different premises.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not just a semantic jugglery. This is also not an attempt to whitewash by saying, “everyone is correct”. No. There indeed are a lot of stupid people who make illogical arguments. Their premises are contradictory in nature, and/or their inferences do not follow the rules of Logic. But questions such as “What ought to be” come down to morality, and cannot be settled by logic. Our moral code is driven by our intuitions, which are the result of our evolution by natural selection. Again, a big contentious topic and I can refer you to <a href="https://abhayavachat.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-righteous-mind.html">The Righteous Mind</a>.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is also not to say that all debates with “them” are on morality. Not at all. For example, when it comes to public policy, effectiveness (usefulness v/s harm) can often be debated objectively, using data analysis. That’s another big topic, as statistical interpretations can also get clouded by confirmation bias and frankly, dishonest intentions.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So now what? How can you convince “them” that “their” argument is illogical? Seriously, if you are still asking that question, you need to read this post again. Instead of looking at the argument, why not look at the premise of that argument? Why not examine it to see if it can be derived from even more fundamental premises, or is it truly subjective?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More importantly, why the need to prove to “them” that “they” are morally wrong? If Mathematics can have internally consistent theories that contradict each other, what’s wrong in a society of humans who hold very contradictory but logical views? Of course it’s not comfortable, but that diversity of thoughts and opinions, you know the thing that we <i>say</i> we celebrate - how about actually celebrating that?</span></span></div>
Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-68477385744976608922020-03-28T16:50:00.002-07:002020-03-28T16:50:47.448-07:00Hunters<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nwv6aJ-fwYE/Xn_inEstETI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/XUzJUe7HtdIft2WzEjHu3eAjNeQCMQcfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/hunters-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1082" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nwv6aJ-fwYE/Xn_inEstETI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/XUzJUe7HtdIft2WzEjHu3eAjNeQCMQcfwCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/hunters-poster.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Series Review : Hunters (Season 1)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Aired on : Amazon Prime (2020)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Rating : 7 out of 10</b></span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-278e0bd2-7fff-a325-3ae0-2d2f8e2021aa" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you want to see something outlandishly different, you have to watch “<i>Hunters</i>”, the heavily promoted series on Amazon Prime for 2020. Bear in mind though, different doesn’t necessarily mean great. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The premise is not novel. In 1977, a group of diverse people have come together as a band to hunt former Nazis living in the USA. Almost like X-Men, this group has been assembled by a patriarchichal leader Meyer Offerman (<i>Al Pacino</i>), who is a survivor of Auschwitz. They are introduced to us, when their newest and youngest member, Jonah (<i>Logan Lerman</i>) joins them to take the place of his grandmother Ruth (J<i>eannie Berlin</i>) after she is murdered. In every episode, we learn something about each of them, but not in equal proportions. We learn a lot more, of course, about the past of Meyer (the leader) and Ruth. A lot of time has been given to the lovely Markowitz couple (<i>Saul Rubinek, Carol Kane</i>). Their adversaries are formidable. The leader is the lady referred to simply as the Colonel (<i>Lena Olin</i>). Most of her dirty work is carried out by a twisted but ambitious soldier Travis (<i>Greg Austin</i>). Their public face is a well connected politician Biff Simpson (<i>Dylan Baker</i>). There are really a lot of characters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, there is nothing even remotely new in making a story about the horrors perpetrated by Nazis. The brave stories of Nazi hunters are also not new, to say the least. All this has been used multiple times, in many great books and movies. What’s different here, is the presentation. Now, even that claim is a cliche. But <i>Hunters</i> is indeed different.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The writers (mainly <i>David Weil</i>) have made very conscious efforts to make sure that <i>Hunters</i> does not fit in any genre. It’s a crazy mixture of numerous cinematic styles. And these styles keep switching from one scene to another with seemingly no reason whatsoever. When it shows the horrors of the concentration camp, it’s unflinchingly dark and terrifying. When the Hunters are on the prowl, it’s a typical Hollywood action film. At times, it’s a comic book fantasy, often reminding us of X-Men. Then suddenly there are inserts of darkly funny TV commercials. Then it can quickly turn around and give us really touching moments. And while we are still in that spell, it can pull a slapstick comedy scene on us. Then suddenly it can decide to take the tone of a B grade movie - very intentionally - to make us suspect that the series is really trying to not take itself too seriously. But it again flips that and becomes cheesy for the next scene. And there may be much more that I am missing to classify properly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So ask this question to yourself. Are you OK with this kind of whiplash? I can tell you that it’s done very intelligently and purposefully. I enjoyed it, mostly. There are dialogues that will stay with you, such as “Y<i>ou should read the Torah more. It’s the original comic book</i>”. There are scenes that you won’t forget, such as someone shooting their own family to death. Or Jonnah and friends suddenly breaking out in a dance sequence to one of the greatest hits from that era - <i>Stayin Alive</i>. Heck, even the costumes are unforgettable. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, it is that different. A crazy weird mix. Sometimes it reminds us of <i>Quentin </i></span></span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Tarantino</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">, sometimes it reminds us of the <i>Coen Brothers</i>. I can also tell you what it’s not. It’s not boring. The pacing can get uneven, but it’s very easy to get hooked to it. Nevertheless, I suspect most viewers won’t binge on it. Because it’s overwhelming, it’s exhausting. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The acting is fantastic, as you can expect from such a cast. Writing is very smart. They have blended political commentary and conspiracy theories, quite well with real history. Yes, there indeed was an “<i>Operation Paperclip</i>”. The production quality is top notch, and I must add, with a lot of attention to colors. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the question you might ask is, why only 7 out of 10? Because I felt cheated in the end. I cannot explain that well without spoiling it for you. But I will say this, some of the surprises (the very last scene, for example) were nice, made me chuckle and say, yes, of course, I should have seen it coming. But some felt forced and unnecessary. And it was really too much to handle at times.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This series is not for the faint of the heart. There is a lot of brutality and violence. It’s definitely not for kids, and correctly rated as MA. For a change, this series goes against the norms. There is very little X rated material, or use of female nudity. Overall I can recommend it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HBGkjmfIzAw" width="560"></iframe>Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-25520157916519250502020-01-30T22:58:00.000-08:002020-01-30T22:58:35.774-08:00Rubaai 15<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Something very personal, in form of a "rubaai", of course with a translation for my non-Marathi friends. If you're easily offended by someone's view on politics and religion, please don't read any further <span class="_47e3 _5mfr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle;" title="wink emoticon"><img alt="" class="img" height="16" role="presentation" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/tb0/1.5/16/1f609.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: -3px;" width="16" /><span aria-hidden="true" class="_7oe" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0px; width: 0px;">;-)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">रुबाई क्रमांक १५</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">हिंदूंच्या नजरेत, मुसलमानच जरा आहे मी<br />आरोप मुसलमानांचा, काफिर खरा आहे मी<br />मान्य तर नाहीत, मला देखील त्यांच्या व्याख्या<br />बाहेरच भिंतींच्या, निच्शृंखल, बरा आहे मी</span></div>
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<b>Rough Translation</b></div>
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“You are like a Muslim”, the Hindus taunt me<br />“You are a real kaafir”, the Muslims accuse me<br />And I have no regard for their definitions anyway<br />Outside the walls, unchained, I am fine being me</div>
Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-36246621002274640582020-01-05T10:40:00.000-08:002020-01-05T10:40:23.032-08:00Sapiens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xX8F7Hud21s/XhIs8jkTnxI/AAAAAAAAAFY/qKx9LVsOkI8e3p6iQi8pyKewOlTpFlljwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/sapiens.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="128" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xX8F7Hud21s/XhIs8jkTnxI/AAAAAAAAAFY/qKx9LVsOkI8e3p6iQi8pyKewOlTpFlljwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/sapiens.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Book Review : Sapiens</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Author : Yual Noah Harari</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The complete title of the book is “<i>Sapiens : A Brief History Of Humankind</i>”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only once in a while a book gets written that is immensely vast in scope, challenges your worldview at a very fundamental level and tackles extremely difficult topics in such an accessible manner that everyone can enjoy it. Sapiens, is such a book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ever since Dr Stephen Hawkings wrote “<i>A Brief History Of Time</i>”, there have been way too many books that announce themselves as “<i>Brief history of …</i>”. This book by Dr Yual Noah Harari deserves to be in the same league of the trailblazing book by Dr Hawkings. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s impossible to put <i>Sapiens</i> in one simple category. The twenty odd amazing chapters cover everything from evolution, history, economics, politics, religion, spirituality, science, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and so on. It would have been a great feat just to weave these disparate threads into one cohesive book, but to do it in such an easy to read manner is an astounding achievement.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The book starts at the evolutionary beginnings of Homo Sapiens and ends at a chapter that speculates what might be in store for us as a species. Along the way almost every branch of knowledge gets covered in surprising detail. Now, this book is not an overview or a survey of these fields. Neither is it an introduction to all fields of human knowledge. It travels through these vistas with a singular destination in mind - to explain how we Homo Sapiens have evolved differently than any other lifeform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What makes the book impossible to put down, is the spicy mix of opinionated commentary with generally accepted scientific theories. The range of topics and author’s fearless discourse almost ensure that everyone is going to be at least somewhat angered and/or offended. True, it will most likely offend religious and conservative readers more, but the liberals and free market capitalists are also likely to find many arguments difficult to digest. And a friendly warning to readers from India, you in particular may not like many discussions, especially if you have a defensive conjecture about how casteism took roots in Indian society. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am not saying that the author is deliberately trying to offend. No, not at all. And leaving aside the topics such as religion and social customs, that raise the heat rather quickly, that’s not the primary focus of the debate either. Most of the topics are morally ambiguous to say the least. A simple binary good or bad evaluation misses the really important nuances. For example, are we really happier than our hunter gatherer ancestors? Was the nexus between imperial colonialism and science good or bad? Is industrial animal farming the largest cruelty in the history of mankind? Are our cherished ideals of democracy and human rights, just a myth that exists and works only in our collective minds? The book is full of debates on such thorny issues.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, before you embark on reading this, and it does get my “must read” recommendation, ask yourself. Do you like to be challenged on your most fundamental beliefs? Do you like to read intelligent arguments even when you don’t agree with them? Do you like to be intellectually stimulated with subtleties of historical analysis? For liking such a book, you have to be welcoming to opinions that make you uncomfortable. That’s my view. I did agree with most of what the author had to say. But I also appreciated the views that I did not agree with. In the end, I came out with a far deeper understanding of Home Sapiens. And for that, I absolutely loved this book, and cannot recommend this highly enough. Do yourself a favor and read it.</span></span></div>
Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12241763743687049083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-59670129034770003372019-11-23T19:40:00.000-08:002019-11-23T19:47:27.314-08:00Here’s Looking at Euclid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Book Review : Here’s Looking at Euclid</b></div>
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Author : Alex Bellos</div>
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<b>My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars</b></div>
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The complete title of the book is “<i>Here’s Looking at Euclid : A surprising excursion through the astonishing world of math</i>”.</div>
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On the back cover of the book, there is a large paragraph praising this book, written by none other than Martin Gardner. That caught my attention. There is also a chapter in the book related to toys and puzzles based on mathematics, in which the author describes his meeting with Martin Gardner, and about his influence on recreational mathematics. This book seems to be in the same tradition that Gardener was instrumental in popularizing. Blending Math, History, Mind bending puzzles, and much more in an entertaining package.</div>
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This book too is fun to read, although it starts slow. The initial chapters were a bit of a drag for me. I was also irritated by the constant reference of Amazonian native tribes as “Indians”. This is not about political correctness, it’s just flat out wrong. Especially for someone who has taken the trouble to travel to India to personally research about ancient Hindu mathematics. Even setting that aside, it took a few chapters for the book to pick up speed for me.</div>
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Luckily, as the book progressed, it became a lot more entertaining and informative. Each chapter has a theme. Although sometimes there are references to earlier chapters, I don’t think it needs to be run sequentially. It can be thought of as a collection of essays, and can be read in any order.</div>
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Each chapter is about a different area of mathematics. Of course, there is no hope to even touch upon all the areas. These topics are what the author has chosen to show that Mathematics is accessible, fun and inspiring. Some of the topics of the chapters are so extensive that entire books of recreational math have been written about them. For example, see my previous reviews about books on topics such as the “non-Euclidean geometry” or “probability”. In spite of the limitation of condensing the material to one chapter, the author has succeeded in giving a thorough introduction to the history and ideas involved, and kept in a fun to read.</div>
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The last chapter, unconvincingly bundles non-Euclidean Geometry and Cantor’s theory of infinity together. It’s still a good chapter, but I would have preferred more detailed chapter on each. Some of the middle chapters are a breeze to read. The information about Sudoku, or the Bell Curve was brilliantly presented.</div>
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Most people who like reading books on Math will like this book as well. If you haven’t read a lot of books on Math, this is a nice place to start. Especially if you have been intimidated by high school math, you should definitely try this one, as there are many facets of Math that are just delightful and everyone deserves to be delighted by Math.</div>
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Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460095655750795126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-51384664058348676172019-10-12T19:37:00.000-07:002019-10-12T19:37:29.740-07:00हरकत - अरबीतुन मराठीमध्ये<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">मराठी भाषेत भरपूर वापरात असणाऱ्या अनेक शब्दांची व्युत्पत्ती अरबी आणि फारसी भाषेत आढळते. त्यातलाच एक शब्द, हरकत.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">अरबी भाषेत बहुतेक शब्द अगदी शास्त्रसोक्त नियमानुसार बनवले जातात. ह्या सर्व शब्दांचा जो पाया असतो, तो मूल शब्द (root word) हा बहुतांशी तीन व्यंजनांनी बनलेला असतो. इथे ही तीन व्यंजने आहेत ‘ह र क. ह्यात जे पहिले व्यंजन आहे, ते मराठी “ह” सारखेच आहे पण त्याचा उच्चार खूपच जास्त कंठीय आहे. इतका की त्याचा अचूक उच्चार मराठी भाषिकांसाठी अशक्यच म्हणा<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">वा.</span></span></div>
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ह्या तीन व्यंजनांना (‘ह र क) वापरून जे शब्द बनतात त्याचा संबंध असतो “हालचाल, गती, ढवळणे” (movement, motion, stir) अशा अर्थांशी निगडित. त्या सर्व शब्दांमधून माझ्या माहितीत तरी दोनच शब्द उर्दूत आले, आणि त्यातला एकच शब्द मराठीत आला.</div>
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अरबीमध्ये ह्या व्यंजनापासून बनणारा एक शब्द आहे ‘हरका (حَرَكَة), आणि त्याचे बरेच अर्थ आहेत - movement, motion, stirring वगैरे. अरबीमध्ये त्या शब्दाचे अनेकवचन आहे ‘हरकात (حَرَكَات). ह्याच दोन शब्दावरून फारसी मध्ये शब्द आला ‘हरकत, आणि त्याला अजून एक अर्थ मिळाला - कार्य (act, action).</div>
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हिंदी आणि उर्दू मध्ये, ‘हरकत हा शब्द सहसा त्याच अर्थाने वापरला जातो, आणि तोही जरा वाईट अर्थाने. उदाहरणार्थ, “ऐसी हरकते सिर्फ तुम कर सकते हो”. उर्दू शब्दकोशामध्ये जरी “अडथळा” हाही अर्थ दिला असला, तरी तो तितक्या प्रचारात आढळत नाही.</div>
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जो दुसरा शब्द उर्दूत आला तो आहे, ते’हरीक (تحریک). हा शब्द बहुतांशी राजकीय आणि सामाजिक संदर्भात वापरला जातो. त्याचा अर्थ आहे - चळवळ (movement), अगदी मूळ अरबी अर्थानुसार.</div>
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आपण मराठी मध्ये, मराठमोळ्या उच्चाराने शब्द घेतला - हरकत. आणि त्याच्या अर्थात वृद्धी केली. जेंव्हा आपण गायनातल्या हरकतींबद्दल बोलतो, तेंव्हा अरबी भाषेतील मूळ अर्थापासून तसे आपण दूर नसतो. पण जेंव्हा आपण एखाद्या गोष्टीला हरकत घेतो, तेंव्हा आपण त्याला आक्षेप असा एक नवीनच अर्थ देतो!!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">जेंव्हा एखादी भाषा इतर भाषेतील शब्द सहजरित्या आपलेसे करून घेते, तेंव्हा त्या भाषेची समृद्धी वृधिंगतच होते.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">आशा आहे, माझ्या ह्या वक्तव्याला तुमची हरकत नसावी!</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="_47e3 _5mfr" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle;" title="smile emoticon"><img alt="" class="img" height="16" role="presentation" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t4c/1/16/1f642.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: -3px;" width="16" /></span></div>
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Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460095655750795126noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4675912701618447043.post-74183397942729526112019-09-29T17:47:00.000-07:002019-09-29T17:47:19.683-07:00The Silent Wife<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://books.google.com/books/content?id=FsOYJnWcmg4C&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE72TXnTqw2VhlrbSvoSzz-9BlJQcFKqHi9xdUR1yxmCXjZ2PQAfH1LOIrPFqRpmgE3NLH4nfrLA0bEU0jwNXJlVaUCgf-iRvcDoWpd6V3KKQYN_ZgnCTmdrv_3P1QSba8Y7NZkq4" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="211" data-original-width="128" height="200" src="https://books.google.com/books/content?id=FsOYJnWcmg4C&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE72TXnTqw2VhlrbSvoSzz-9BlJQcFKqHi9xdUR1yxmCXjZ2PQAfH1LOIrPFqRpmgE3NLH4nfrLA0bEU0jwNXJlVaUCgf-iRvcDoWpd6V3KKQYN_ZgnCTmdrv_3P1QSba8Y7NZkq4" width="121" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Book Review : The Silent Wife</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Author : A.S.A Harrison</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Rating : 4 out of 5</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have always liked mystery/thriller genre and for a long time I have been trying to find a satisfying read in vain. Many months ago, while reading reviews of “<i>Gone Girl</i>”, I stumbled across lofty praise for “<i>The Silent Wife</i>”, and added it to my “to be read” list. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Right in the beginning, the book tells us that very soon the wife Jodi is going to murder her husband Todd. Why and how is not mentioned. Right now, she thinks she is in a stable marriage. Far from perfect, and not completely happy, as Todd is an unfaithful husband. Jodi knows that, but she has made peace with it, assuming that these are temporary occasional indulgences. They are affluent. Todd is a successful small business owner. Jodi is a psychologist, although her practice does not generate much income. It’s more of a hobby. She really enjoys her role of a home maker, making dinners and keeping everything neat and perfect.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The story of the slow disintegration of their marriage is told in alternating viewpoints of Jodi and Todd. One chapter for her, and one chapter for him. It’s told using sentences that are in present tense, a style that I dislike. But the viewpoint idea works. The author uses it very intelligently to give a close up look at what’s going on in their minds. As the story unfolds, we learn more about them and their flaws. How Todd rationalizes his behavior and how Jodi’s past is shaping her present. This is a well written novel in terms of getting to know the characters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the first novel of Canadian author A.S.A. Harrison. Unfortunately she died before her book was published. It’s sad that she did not get to see the success of her book. She has used her knowledge of psychology well. It’s less of a mystery book than what the marketing blurb would suggest. Make no mistake, the mystery part works, as the author slowly reveals how things lead to the murder. Since we already know that there is a murder, this build up keeps us turning the pages to figure out the why and how. As far as the suspense goes, it depends on how many mystery books you have read. It’s not impossible to guess the outcome. The real focus of the book is two human beings, their shortcomings, their self serving minds and their complicated relationship. It’s fascinating, and dark at the same time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s an interesting book, but definitely not great. So I am hesitatingly giving it a 4 star rating. I think there isn’t enough material here even for the approximately 300 pages. There are only two main characters, and the plot is not that complex. I can go only so much into someone else’s life details. Afterwards, it seems like a drag to me. The memories of Jodi’s session with her psychology professor were definitely overwritten.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With those caveats, I can recommend the book.</span></span></div>
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Abhay Avachathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460095655750795126noreply@blogger.com0