Soumya's Weird Musings

This post brings back memories of a bookmark that I constantly saw, because I kept it in a book I frequently read. The bookmark had a quote on it, the same quote that opens this little passage. Here is the Hindi translation of "Intelligence and Accepting Fallibility." (English:  https://astronomyamateurs.blogspot.com/2017/08/intelligence-and-accepting-fallibility.html ) दोषक्षमता स्वीकार करने की बुद्धिमत्ता “अक़्ल होना व्यक्तित्व का भाग नहीं है, न ही ये विवाद, विश्वास, मत, या तर्क का परिणाम है। अक़्ल तब आती है जब दिमाग को अपनी दोषक्षमता समझने लगती है, अपनी काबिलियत और औकात समझने लगती है।“ इस विषय पर निबंध लिखने की इच्छा होती है। अक़्ल की सरल परिभाषा तो यही है कि ये आपके पास कितनी जानकारी है, इस बात का नाप है। ग़ौर से सोचा जाए, तो इस परिभाषा में खुद की दोषक्षमता समझना भी जानकारी ही है। दोषक्षमता – हमारी दोष, या ग़लती करने की क्षमता। इसकी समझ होना मतलब इस बात को स्वीकार करना कि हम भगवान नहीं हैं, हमने भी ग़लती की है। इतना ही नहीं, तो ग़लती सुधारने की बहादुरी और आ...

Back in 2016-17, I used to contribute to a blog: astronomyamateurs.blogspot.com Now, I'm trying my hand at translation. To challenge myself, I took an article I wrote on there ( https://astronomyamateurs.blogspot.com/2016/08/mathematical-vomit-i-know-how-charming.html ) and translated it to Hindi. There were three objectives to this: to have a demo of my translation ready, to practice Hindi typing, and, of course, to improve my skills. It's not the famous Kamlesh Dhavale, but I hope you'll enjoy the result anyway. गणित की गणना (मैं समझाती हूँ।) चेतावनी: ये एक लंबा लेख है। नींद लग जाए तो लेखक को मत कोसना। किसी भी एक आँकड़े के बारे में सोचिए। बड़े-छोटे की चिंता मत कीजिए। अपने मन की आँख में उसे देखते रहिए: उसकी बनावट, वो कौन-सी संख्या दर्षाता है। क्या इस अंक से आपको खास लगाव है? अब कल्पना कीजिए, आप इस आँकड़े के साथ क्या-क्या कर सकते हैं। आप इसमें कुछ जोड़ सकते हैं, इसमें से या इसको घटा सकते हैं, गुणाकार कर सकते हैं, इसको या इससे भाग कर सकते हैं। य...

The memories a woman makes before she gets married are fond ones for the rest of her life. And as a daughter looking at her mother and grandmother before her, a marriage as fond as the memories before it is a matter of risk and luck. It is a plunge women are courageous enough to make, not knowing whether the events beyond this horizon will constitute just as fond memories, or something else entirely. My mother and grandmother didn't know what they were leaving their old life behind in favour of, but they were brave enough to find out. I lack that bravery. I grew up believing (and I have seen little to no evidence against this) that marriage has an element, however small, of subjugation attached to it. You're bound to more than just a person: you're bound to their beliefs, their family, their obligations, and a lot more. Unwittingly, you find yourself conforming to the ways of your partner and the new environment that you have entered. And the events that you've had to...

A couple of unsettling events prompt me to write this. One of those events is people defending – and admitting to liking – a man named Adolf Hitler. If I could spit his name in writing, I would. I loathe the man responsible for killing six million Jews , who was the centre of a World freaking War, who turned many surviving Jews atheist. Imagine a man being so cruel that you lose your belief in God – in the idea that there can be good in the world. No, being a good speaker is not a redeeming quality, goddammit! Go back and read what I wrote about legitimacy. See, Indians wouldn't have tolerated mention of that man if it were Hindus – or heck, simply other Indians – he was targeting. We still feel sour about the British Raj, so my imagination is not far-fetched. So this is my response to whoever dares defend him to me. Fine, he was a good speaker. But good speaker does not equate to good person , not if his speeches moved crowds to commit genocide ...

I've been sitting on this for so long, I can't even find the words to begin. Maybe narrating this as a story will help? Moving back from the US to India had been one heck of a shift, in many aspects. For me, the most noticeable (and most complained about, I'll freely admit) shift happened with the education systems of both countries. I've tried putting that shift into words many times, but I never seemed to find any. There's a fundamental strictness in Indian schools that there isn't in American ones. In two years, I'd just about had it. I had a glorious nine-minute rant about what I'd discovered. Creativity and individualism seemed to have no place in my school. I realized that I was the teachers' beloved because I was "responsible." But my sense of responsibility only stemmed from my ability to make mistakes and learn from them. But how was I supposed to fare if I wasn't even allowed to make mistakes? Education is an interplay of ...