an old age rant

Mishmash.

That is actually what this post is. It has some random and totally unrelated things, off the top of my mind put in one place. Without further ado, here goes:

One, I have my very own domain name now. Thanks to my uber-awesome mum and dad, they gifted me with the best possible long distance birthday gift possible viz, a .com domain, http://www.subhayan.com. Yes, you heard that right. So now, blog.subhayan.com will actually take you to what was (and still is), wrahoolwrites.blogspot.com.

I shall do a this.

Two, Durga Puja, and how epically awesome it was here in Pilani. Boy, oh boy, I miss those five days so much now. Therefore,

And a +1 if you got what that meant.

Three, the Computer Science Association of BITS Pilani just pulled off a pretty awesome weekend full of events last to last week. Why do I put it on my blog? Because I am the coordinator for CSA and yeah, it felt pretty satisfactory after it ended. It was called The Codestock Festival, and it had five components. There was a programming event in the esoteric language called Whitespace; there was a Project Orientation by the CSA Project Forum for our tech fest next semester; there was a Treasure Hunt that made teams run around campus in pursuit of answers to cryptic clues; there was a webdee event too, that pitched html, css, and a whole lot of web development skills of the contestants in one arena. Lastly, there was a grueling coding event hosted on SPOJ with problems set by some of the brightest coders on campus. All in all, it was great fun and I’d like to thank the whole CSA team, without whom this would never been possible.

Next I move into deeper stuff. I guess this is how you rant when you get old (which I can safely assume myself to be, given that I turned 21 yesterday).

Fake education here in India. After a pretty much one-sided GTalk session with one of my friends yesterday (needless to say, I was the one doing the talking) I managed to consolidate several fragments of an observation that I had been making ever since my third year in college has begun. All of these fragments when put in perspective, seem to imply that the education that we get here in India is, to put it simply, fake. We enter premium institutes after our +2: be it IITs, be it BITS or any other engineering college for that matter. We graduate with BTech’s and BE’s, and get labelled an engineer.

But how many of us, actually remain an engineer? How many of us, actually put all the techincal knowledge to use, after getting the degree? How many of us, actually like engineering as a subject and actually want to pursue it in the future.

The answer is pretty disheartening. I know for a fact that in my batch, the fraction of students who wish to pursue their discipline is small. The overwhelming majority is either composed of the ones who pine for the coveted MBA from an IIM or long to get a job the moment they step out of college.

Let’s dissect the two options here.

First, an MBA. The moment you take admission to an MBA course, your entire engineering knowledge is rendered null and void. Save for the rare exceptions who wish to come back to the educational line in the future. Why then, (I use the word ‘fashionably’ here), ‘fashionably’ take up Science in your +2? Why then, spend sleepless nights and rote and sweat out for two years for taking an admission into an engineering college? Would you not take then, something like Economics, or say, Commerce and spend an easier life and then do a BCom degree if you really want to do an MBA later on? What is all that BTech knowledge giving you? How is all that hard work for getting into an engineering college paying off?

It isn’t! It’s futile, pointless and useless!

The second option, getting a job. This I can agree to, there being people who need to start earning as quickly as possible for a variety of reasons. But then again, why is it, that the most desired job in an engineering college like BITS is one where they pay you loads of money to manage people? Why is it, that some of the most wanted jobs require you to not use your engineering knowledge?

Is it just the students themselves or is something actually wrong with our system?

I met some alumni a few days back here on campus. Not surprisingly, out of eight, only one of them, was still in the technical line. This certain person, was a professor at the UIUC, and was happy with whatever he was doing. The rest were (of course, they were all happy with whatever they were doing), but they were all spread over different sectors and had left the technical line, long back. There was this one banker, who was the COO of HSBC London (impressive indeed) and there was someone else who was doing some big things in Singapore.

But the question remains, did he really need to go through BITS to do all of that? Most of them had been through an IIM, so wouldn’t it have been simpler to just take BCom and then clear the CAT? Oh, don’t tell me, that your BE courses helped you in CAT, I am definitely not buying that.

The thing I guess, that makes it different here from abroad (say in a US engineering college, where people graduate with their BTech’s or equivalent and then enter research) is the whole system of education here. We don’t study because we like to study. We don’t enter IITs or BITS because we want to do engineering, but because we know, when we come out, we’ll get a good job or if not, we’ll do an MBA and then use the IIT-IIM tag to surely get a good job and then make it big as some corporate hotshot.

Consider the courses that are taught here in our college. Actually, no. Don’t consider the courses. Instead concentrate on how they’re taught. I, in the middle of my math courses, and having a tough job trying to reconcile my mind to study Group Theory on my birthday, can vouch for the fact that these are brilliant courses! Hell! I like my courses! I do not get marks in tests, fine! But I like studying Real Analysis! I like Topology!

But yes, the way they are taught, that is what I have problems with. Attending classes hasn’t helped me, and the only bit of knowledge that I have about my courses, is owing to me waging a patient psychological warfare with the authors of my text books. Sometimes, when I understand small things, like Proving that the Cantor Set is uncountable or Permutation Groups,  I actually smile to myself! Yes, I like understanding courses, and hence I do not want to waste all this knowledge in the future!

I do not know what to say now. I have no idea where destiny shall take me. I have too many things bubbling in my mind. I shall end with forty-five seconds of silence for the Adam who ate the forbidden fruit and died of pancreatic cancer, and fifteen seconds for the Mumbai Indians who won the Champions League Twenty20. Yes, it’s that sad.

Actually, so am I.

Subhayan Mukerjee, 9th October 2011

😥

to and on Vegetarians

I have absolutely nothing against vegetarians. Many of my GoodFriends are vegetarian, and how dare I have anything against them?

sample vegetarian. Notice the look of extreme sadness on her face.

Nevertheless. Nevertheless, they manage to bewilder me. They make me scratch my head and make  me ponder upon the futility of such a life; the inherent sadness of such an existence. And all this they perform by the sheer power of the fact that they are vegetarian.

At a personal level, (I hope I don’t get into issues with the PETA) I believe that it is an animal’s moral duty to present itself on my plate when I sit down to eat, at least once in its life time. The fact that it can do that only once makes the previous statement sound a tad redundant but let that not taint the vitality of my faith.

I’ve been involved in countless food-brawls with my GoodFriends. By food-brawls I refer to brawls over food, not brawls with the food (the thing that the WWE superstars are so competent at). And most of this have ended with a tongue-lock when I am left to counter the very very ancient and incorrigibly clichéd argument regarding the “compassion and love for all things living”. Which I admit, I cannot. The best reply I can give when someone stumps with a “How would YOU feel like if you were to be eaten someday?” is that “I cannot foresee a future when I would be within 50 miles of cannibalism at any point in my life.” Lame, I admit. But works.

Which brings me to the question of plant perception. Can plants feel?

Hell, yes they do. I base my conviction on the numerous results that appear when you type the same question in the Google search-bar. This, being the most glaring. Discarding non-vegetarian food on grounds of “compassion and love for all living things” can now go to the dogs. But yes, them vegetarians, are hard nuts to crack. My GoodOldSidey (I don’t know whether whether he’s reading this) (yet another vegetarian, needless to say) comes up with this extremely contrived extension of the same reason. Which is, “I don’t like eating something which has yelpt in pain and cried so that I may eat it”.

If he had as much of a white soul as he appears to, after this revelation, God bless this sin-stained world, but that is besides the point.

To him, and to others who would like to emulate him, let them be made aware that when Sir George Bernard Shaw visited Sir Jagdish Bose’s laboratory, he was stunned to see that cabbages suffered from violent convulsions when boiled to death. (A piece of information shamelessly wiki-lifted from the above link). To them I ask,  “Will you stop boiling cabbages now?” I think I know the answer to that.

Plants (continuing upon the same spree of shameless wiki-lifting) actually have a very well developed nervous system and they respond to shock by spasm in exactly the same way as an animal muscle does. Just because one cannot visibly see or hear the pain a broccoli plant goes through when you chop its limbs off without a bother doesn’t prove anything. You can as well wait for goats to sleep (or use tranquilisers for that matter) before you behead them and proceed to cut them into nice chops and blah-blah.

Another thing.

Vegetarian food has this weird way of staring up at you and shouting, “Hah! Your ancestors fought their way up the food chain and you’re somewhere down there again.” Quite right! Being vegetarian is like openly disregarding the revered concept of the food chain and showing scant respect to the laws of evolution, which over millions of years have carved a path for you, so that you, as a Homo sapien are given the birth-right to be a secondary consumer. If not higher.

Therefore, by being vegetarian, you actually go against nature and it’s predetermined laws.

Hah. So much for your compassion and love for nature now.

Quad-erat-demonstrandum.

would you have all these?

or well, just this?

PS : Andy Rooney ( I have absolutely no idea who he is) says that “Vegetarian is an old Indian word for ‘lousy hunter’ “. I say, “Bullseye.”

No leaf Clover

Have you ever gone through those phases of your life, when a certain thing had kept haunting you? Kept getting back to you? It could have been anything – a memory, a loved one, an incident, a scene from a movie … or something as arbit as a game of chess you had won, a shirt that you had worn or even a sumptuous dessert that you had tasted.

From a personal perspective, I have. Many a time. Though what I relate now is something that has been stuck in one corner of my mind for as long as three-and-a-half-months. It laid there for all this while, gathering dust and neglect, till I thought I had to dig it up. Express it, rather than let theGreatHealer shroud it in layers of forgetfulness.

It’s a song. More specifically, a particular lyric of a song. And the song goes by the name No Leaf Clover. And just in case you haven’t head the song, it’s a song from the live S&M album of none other than Metallica.

Contrary to the reactions expressed by those of you, who snickered in disgust at the name Metallica, instantly associating it to a loud, noisy, headache-inducing group of profane people, who yell in front of microphones, and jump around on stage … well, honestly speaking, I have nothing to say. The only thing I can hazard is saying that the next time, try to look at the thing differently. Or follow the lyrics of the song you are listening to. Maybe you’ll like it that way.

But to those of you who are into metal music, who can understand the beauty behind all that “noise and loud sound”, to them, I really don’t need to say anything. 

Coming back to No Leaf Clover.

the lyrics and my interpretation follow :

And it feels right this time
On his crash course with the big time
Pay no mind to the distant thunder
New Day fills his head with wonder, boy

Says it feels right this time
Turned it ’round and found the right line
“Good day to be alive, sir
Good day to be alive,” he says

Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way

Don’t it feels right like this
All the pieces fall to his wish
“Suck up for that quick reward, boy
Suck up for that quick reward,” they say

Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way
It’s coming your way
It’s coming your way oh yeah!
Here it comes

Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way

the song begins with positive vibes. Of how things seem to be falling in place. The rejection of the ominous elements (pay no mind to the distant thunder), and the start of a new day, a new hope signify a near plethora of good things about to happen. It is apparently a “good day to be alive” …

The next stanza brings all the positivity crashing down. How things which had seemed to be falling in place … suddenly get all hay-wire and messed up. There’s trouble brewing up. And the ominous agents are on the rise.

The analogy drawn is not only very appropriate, but also very thoughtful. How a person who is trapped in a dark dreary tunnel, welcomes the soothing light at the end of tunnel, assuming it to be the end of the darkness, but is overcome with sudden fear when he realises that it is actually the light from a freight train heading his way.

Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way …

The next stanza again raises the hope, and makes references to times of war. “Suck up for that quick reward boy.” “Suck up for that quick reward” they say …  how a newly recruit soldier, who is all enthused about joining the army is shown the real deal in the battle front. His senior officers (“they”) ask him “Don’t it feels right likes this?” The young gun loves it … the battle field is all that he had dreamed of all his life … and “All the pieces fall to his wish” … but then again

Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Was just a freight train coming your way …

By far, this is the most crucial line in the lyrics, and the one about which the song revolves.

The sudden fall in luck; the suddenly overwhelming helplessness; the sudden rise of negativity; the sudden turning of tides. All this and more.

PS : A four leaf clover is a symbol of good luck, and a harbinger of good times. A NO leaf clover is therefore, quite the reverse.

brb

the zero

“… and what happens when we take a number out from itself”, asked the primeval Ghot.
“Nothing remains … at all”, the primeval master answered.
“So how do we show that there is nothing left in that?” the primeval Ghot continued.

The primeval Master closed his eyes and contemplated for a while. After he was done pondering over this question … an answer to which would change the course of human history, he opened his eyes again, picked up a piece of charcoal and  scribbled something on the parchment, that lay on the ground. Having done this, he stared at his handiwork in amazement and wonder.

The primeval Ghot peered into the parchment expecting to see something out-of-the-ordinary scribbled in that, and was quite disappointed when he saw that it was nothing more than a circle.

“That’s it?” he asked incredulously, “a tiny circle?”

The primeval Master smiled back.

— passage of time —

Little did the primeval Ghot and his Master know that by this feat, they had actually changed the way societies would evolve thousands of years down the line. Little did they know that they had by this act, shaped the way cultures would function, the sciences would develop and the world would become what it is today.

The little circle which came to being as a result of a simple question posed by the primeval Ghot, is today better known as the zero. Or, if you are BITSian, a zuc.

So why the sudden fascination for this seemingly well-known everyday little object, a fascination that has even compelled me to dedicate an entire blog post to it?

Why indeed? I wonder.

What does the zero denote?

Several things. For one, it is the answer most unsuspecting IITJEE aspirants tick in an OMR sheet, hoping that to be the correct option and then wonder what went wrong. For another, it’s the thing that comes back on your answer sheet, in red ink when you submit a blank one. For yet another, it is the thing which when added at the end of your paycheck, increases your worries ten-fold.

To the chemist, the concept of Absolute Zero, the theoretical temperature at which all thermodynamic activity ceases, is of profound interest. To the physicist it is the hearing threshold in decibels, amongst other things which projects zero into its numero-uno status. To the computer science student it is the quintessential role zero plays in binary mathematics and Boolean algebra that makes it so very essential. And to the historian, the year zero is the fulcrum about which the Gregorian calender is pivoted.

To the mathematician … lets not get into that.

So as you can see the zero is not only ubiquitous, but varied in it’s application in the real world.

What else does it denote?

Simply put, another of its applications lies in its usage as a symbol for nothingness, as a symbol for voids,  and emptiness. This application is possibly the biggest feather this beautiful number has in its cap, and the reason why it came to exist in the first place.

Which brings me to the thing I had in mind when I began writing this post.

Nothingness.

A queer thing it is. We know what it is, yet we don’t understand what it means.

We seem made out of it, yet we fail to embrace it. 

We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust

We know that that’s what is in store for us, yet we don’t want it.

If it is nothingness that awaits us, let us make an injustice of it; let us fight against destiny, even though without hope of victory. 

It is that which is present everywhere, yet we fail to perceive it.

God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.

One only needs to look at it the right way.

— pondering —

 Why the hell did I write all this? Forgive me if I’ve wasted your time all this while. I guess it’s the post-Oasis hangover. Need to get some sleep.

PS : my backy shouts and tells me that SENSEX has gone down by 65 points. That’s bad.

On a parting note, here’s some food-for-thought.

cheers 🙂

The Mathematics of Divinty and Evil

Mathematics is a beautiful subject.

Not the stuff we learn in college, though. Those are more of abominations; more of atrocious instances of human rights violation, hell bent on antagonizing innocent, unsuspecting students against this otherwise beautiful natural phenomenon. But, that apart, there still IS a mathematics which isn’t all about memorising formulae, which isn’t all about attending classes for getting to know which approach works best for which problem. Very little is known of this mathematics. And this mathematics, is the beautiful mathematics. The beauty of which comes to light, when one goes out of the text book, out of the constrained and contrived “syllabus” and delves into the sheer simplicity of stuff that goes on around us.

One such fascinating concept is that of the Golden Ratio, or the Golden Section. Considerably less known than the mainstream, stereotyped mathematics … but surprisingly ubiquitous in its application in the real world, this concept draws upon two things, and stands out from the rest: simplicity and beauty.

What is it?

Pretty simple. Take a line segment. Find a point on this line segment, and divide it into two portions such that the whole : bigger portion = bigger portion : smaller portion. The following figure will illustrate.

When you form an equation, and then solve it you get the following value for this “golden ratio” commonly represented by phi (φ).

Solving it yields the value

But all this is standard mathematics and juggling with numbers. Where’s the beauty in all this, the skeptic interjects.

Patience, I reply.

The ubiquitousness of this apparently simple and “dry” number is mind-numbing. From seemingly random assortment of florets in a sunflower or the petals of a rose, to the architecture involved in the making of the Pyramids of Giza and the Greek Parthenon, this little number holds the secrets of beauty, design and simplicity in the natural world like no other. Not surprisingly, it is considered to be the Divine Number or God’s favorite number, which he extensively used during Creation.

You can learn more about this Golden Ratio at http://www.goldennumber.net/ and also at … wait-for-it … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio … so I needn’t mention its widespread applications in my meek little post. What I focus on however, is a little known aspect of the Golden Ratio.

And that is its Divinity.

As I mentioned a few sentences back, the Golden Ratio is considered to be the Divine Number. Now here’s a question. Ever heard of  something “opposite” to this? A number which symbolizes the “opposite” of divinity? An Iron Maiden fan would jump up to his feet and shout “The Number of the Beast! Six-six-six”

And that’s what it is. 666. Six hundred and sixty six. The Number of The Beast. The Number of the Devil. Or generally, the number of Evil.

Now if Divinity and Evil are supposed to be “opposite” to each other, could we come to the same conclusion mathematically?


And presto! We can!

sin(666) = –φ/2

The sine of the Devil’s Number is negative of one half of the Divine Number! In other words, they are opposite in sign! Coincidence? Sheer coincidence? Or God’s way of stating a fundamental truth? Perhaps we shall never know.


Oh and by the way, this was the 100th post on my blog 🙂 Took it’s time, but its finally arrived 🙂

the third side of the coin

“Now you’re looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled. “

Indeed.

There is a difference between just looking and looking correctly.When you just look, it’s no more than a physical phenomenon … immaculately described by a few laws of physics and made unnecessarily complicated by a large number of biology books. But what it essentially boils down to is … the fact that it is understandable.

Looking correctly however is far from that. It is certainly not fully understandable. Nor is it defined in black and white by a few laws of physics. It, in fact, transcends all that the physical world stands for, and has to offer. Be it reason, rationale, human comprehension or laws. It borders upon vagueness, randomness; at times venturing into realms of surrealism; at other times, even boldly entering legends and myths.

Hindu mythology has a lot to do with looking correctly. The sort of looking that isn’t done by the eyes. The sort of looking that is rather done by the mind. The sort of looking that isn’t associated with just letting reflected rays of light getting refracted through your lens and creating a real image on the retina. Yes, what I refer to is indeed the sort of looking done by the third eye or the mind’s eye.

Is it just a myth or is there room enough to speculate upon it’s possibilities in reality? Surprisingly enough the discovery of the tuatara, the enigmatic reptile from New Zealand does prove that a third eye is very much possible. It’s function however is not to look at things the way the two ordinary eyes do. In fact, it doesn’t look at all. However it is proof that a third eye once existed on this creature before it fell prey to the time stained process of evolution. Shamelessly quoting wikipedia :

“The tuatara has a third eye on the top of its head called the parietal eye. It has its own lens, cornea, retina with rod-like structures, and degenerated nerve connection to the brain, suggesting it evolved from a real eye. The parietal eye is only visible in hatchlings, which have a translucent patch at the top centre of the skull.”

What this third eye did, how it functioned, before it sunk into layers of dormancy? Perhaps we will never know, perhaps we will never figure out. But yes, open to ideas? Always. Maybe this is what made them special, and helped them stay put on this planet since the Mesozoic era? Very aptly being branded as living fossils?

Was it just the power of visual perception or more that helped the third eye, make their bearers, the tuatara invincible to the ravishing evolutionary process that made many a species extinct? That gave them a perspective to this world that the two eyes never could?

Can we have that power ever? Or is it a lost art? Fit for the Gods only, and books of mythology perhaps?

Or maybe, we can gain it someday … gain that perspective which will help us read between the lines that we actually read. Look at stuff the way others don’t. Stare at something and know what it’ll be like in the future.

In actuality it’s just the perspective. The art of looking at the third side of the coin, that matters.

Dzonghs and more

This is all set to be a pretty boring post, fueled solely by my interest in alternative history and a certain television program on the Nation Geographic Channel viz Megastructures. If you happen to have an interest in either, or you are (or going to be soon) a civil engineer and you are passionate about the subject, there is a little probability that you too might just like it.

This is set in a little landlocked country in Asia, happily nestled and nurtured by the mighty Himalayas. To its north lies the People’s Republic of China, to its west, south and east … our very own motherland, India. Yes, you got it right, it’s Bhutan that I am referring to.  The Land of the Thunder Dragon (and Land of so many more things, as we later realised, during our recent ten day vacation)

First things, first : this is NOT a travelogue. I am not a good … er … describer of vacations, if you get what I mean. Rather, this is a write-up describing and unearthing one little-known yet glaring aspect of this sweet little country.

What I refer to are Dzonghs (To pronounce it right, you needn’t make faces and look like a retard, just eliminate the D and the H and you get a simple, pronounceable word). So what are they? They are simply put, Bhutanese fortresses, each of which have a rich trailing history. Big, towering, and awe-inspiring, their prominence in Bhutan is as great today as it was a few centuries back. Which is what sets it aside from the great monuments in other countries.

A few glimpses at the pictures that follow will prove that they are remarkable architectural masterpieces, and interestingly enough, they have stood the test of time, and continue to be centres of thriving activity even today. Dzonghs as I have said before were meant to be fortresses … military structures, which were instrumental in fending off Tibetan attacks from the north and Indian from the south. Today however, when peace reigns in this country, and military operations rarely … er operational, Dzonghs have been converted into seats of the governance. As a result of which these medieval marvels continue to serve the country, more than what historical monuments in other countries do.

There are some nineteen Dzonghs in the whole of Bhutan, and each is unique in its shape, structure, and history. Even the sites where they stand, have a sacred history trailing behind. Many thrilling myths and legends surround each Dzongh, which contribute greatly to modern Bhutanese folklore. Each country in general has separate structures/buildings for commerce, administration, military, religious and social purposes, but Dzonghs in Bhutan, encapsulate  them all together in one place. Not surprisingly, each Dzongh, houses a huge temple or monastery which is breathtaking in its own manner. Historically, they have served all of these purposes, from being seats of governance, to garisson for the military, homes of monks, and places for social or religious celebrations. These Dzonghs are also witnessess to bitter civil wars between medieval Bhutanese lords, when Bhutan still wasn’t one consolidated country. Though structurally unique, they all seem to have been built on a common architectural pattern, which are evident when one has seen a few of them. There is a tall central tower that is supposed to signify the abstract frontiers between the temporal and spiritual administration of the dual system of government. The huge courtyards and the general expansiveness that greets the eye symbolize the “openness” and broader aspect of the life, and also territorial expansion.

Well, I’ll stop the wramblingz here. What follows are some pics that we clicked that’ll help you to see what Dzonghs really are like.

for further information check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzong_architecture

a literary ague

I write these things when I am bored with life. Though, I am working on my first ever story, which I wanted to put up. Giving in to my vacillating emotions, put this up instead. 




The sun had kissed the snow clad peaks of the mountains yonder, with its all-pervasive beams slowly fading away into a beautiful shade of darkness. Surrendering, despite its incredible power, to the cycle of time. The sky, bewitchingly beautiful, like a cocktail, impeccably brewed by some over arching divine power. An exquisite shade of crimson seamlessly blending into a celestial azure that fused with the infinity that was one horizon.

Dusk, the harbinger of night, had arrived. The creatures of the night, would arise once more. Suddenly over one face of the earth, nature seemed to have lit up, with a blaze of glorious beauty, like never before. The constellations had risen. Glimmering down upon this breathtaking natural phenomenon with the multitude of diamonds they were home to. 

And suddenly, they were blotted out. Towering clouds had taken their place. A remarkable and sudden transition. And then it poured. The water, from the heavens. A sweet drizzle, slowly transforming into a downpour. Washing the parched soil of the earth beneath. One mystic form of beauty giving way to another. As the rain fell, and the night darkened, the freshly watered earth emanated a fragrance … sublime and refreshing, eclectically ecstatic, transcending all material barriers, into a realm of surrealism. Enchanting. Bewildering.


And suddenly, like a phoenix from the ashes, resurrecting all it stood for, with a flash of light, ripping through the dark canopy of the clouds, and lighting the earth once more, with all its glory. The sun had risen. Day had broken once more.The clouds had parted, and the magnificence of the sun’s rays reached far and wide on the thirst quenched surface of the earth. An eloquent victory once more for the sun, and the light … but for a short period only. For a fleeting instant on the celestial timescale.


The climax however was yet to occur. And it did, with all the splendor, that would do justice to this awe-inspiring phenomenon. Like an infinite cloth of multi colored  silk held in place by some unknown force, spanning from one horizon to the very tops of the snow clad mountains, it hung in the sky. Seven colors, all too vivid. Like streamers in some party going on in the heavens.


 A fitting end to such a marvelous celebration called nature.