Necker Cubicle

The party’s going on forever and you can’t leave

Vivek — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:38:04 +0000

I was at a girl’s place yesterday at 4 am, not sleeping, making her scream for God. Before your nasty minds mend stuffs, let me make it clear; I was debating a girl about religion. It started by around 12 midnight . The funny thing about religious people are that everyone of them have their own set of crazy ideas and their own custom made religion. So, even though you hear the same old arguments there will always be a couple of new crazy ideas.

The night can be summarized as follows:

Evolution of her thoughts on “mind” during the argument

Mind exists (not just brain) -> Brain is the root of mind -> Mind is just a subset of brain and I started with that view (!!)

Her views on God

I am 100% sure about my God -> I respect others believes -> Saibaba may be God!

Her prediction about me and my response

She predicted that I will turn to God one day, during the times of fear and the example she quoted was my son having a terrible disease (what an elegant way to sell her religion :P). And I made her agree that she might turn to Saibaba one day even though she is convinced that Saibaba is a fraud.

The sad part

She does not realize that when she stands for A and also for not A in a duration of one minute, she is loosing the argument.

PS: The heading of the post is from one of the talks of Christopher Hitchens.

It will happen to all of us, that at some point you get tapped on the shoulder and told, not just that the party’s over, but slightly worse: the party’s going on — but you have to leave. And it’s going on without you. That’s the reflection that I think most upsets people about their demise. All right, then, because it might make us feel better, let’s pretend the opposite. Instead, you’ll get tapped on the shoulder and told, Great news: this party’s going on forever – and you can’t leave. You’ve got to stay; the boss says so. And he also insists that you have a good time.

Sit before you stretch

Vivek — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:21:16 +0000

This is the third time this week that I am sitting to write a blog. Last two times, I thought, “If I am writing something, why not finish the conference paper than the blog article”. That was the evil side of my brain talking; here I am at the end of the week with an incomplete conference paper and no blog article.

The last blog was a depressing one and I don’t want the person who visits my blog the most (namely me) to see it every time he visits the blog. Hence, this article. I am not sure if I told you guys that I started going for Yoga.

So, after successfully dropping gym, swimming, jogging, badminton and archery, yoga is the latest activity. I am sure it will be joining the club of “droppers” soon but this time it wont hurt much as it is completely free. Can you believe it? FREE. Yoga is something which sells like Kim Kardashian’s tape (or hot pancakes for the innocent souls) in a first world country, everyone wants to learn it, and here is this group which teaches it for free.

The group is called Nikam Guruji Yoga Kutir, and they have 13 centers in Singapore and all the instructors are volunteers. The center was started in Singapore by one of the students of Nikam Guruji sometime back in 1990’s. The second good thing about this group is that they don’t bring in the spirituality myths too much during the class. That was a complete disappointment for my friend who thought he can levitate by yoga. He stopped soon after hurting his neck trying to stand upside down (sheersaasan). In Malayalam we have a proverb, irunnittu kalu neetanam, which means sit before you stretch your legs. This friend of mine, who is also a mallu took it literally and stretched his legs upside down after sitting!! Since I understood the proverb properly, I decided to train myself to sit properly before I stretch.

That’s all for now. Will catch you up with more sprain stories soon!

Crisis

Vivek — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:45:50 +0000

My Prof. is leaving the University and I am worried to the core.

Tribute to Richard Feynman

Vivek — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:07:37 +0000

From My experiments with pencil, paper and eraser

Spot the difference :P

Vivek — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:09:40 +0000

Once a rat… Timeline of an atheist

Vivek — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:31:12 +0000

1985 - Atheist (just born)

1988 - Introduction to Hinduism (Evening prayers and scary stories of demonic gods)

1989 - Introduction to Christianity (Joined catholic school)

1991 - Jesus is God (influence of wonderful teachers who also happens to be nuns)

1995 - Introduction to Greek Gods (Greek myth stories book - Mom’s birthday gift)

- Thought of it as a weak version of Hinduism.

1997 - Back to Hinduism (Amarchitra kadhas and religious tv serials )

1999 - God helps me score mark. Should pray before exams.

2003 - God hates pornography. Should pray/repent after sinning.

2004 - Back to God helps me score marks.

2005 - God definitely helps me score marks (Anyone who studied in Calicut University will know why?).

2006 - Religion is a hoax. There might be a supernatural power.

2007 - Even supernatural power might be a hoax (Discussions with my atheist uncle). i will still pray, it wont hurt.

2009 - Agnostic, argues like an atheist but still prays and have no clue why.

2010 - Atheist (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and true religious people helped in the smooth transition)

Karthik

Vivek — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:16:37 +0000

I was always lucky with friends. I end up being in the best of the best people throughout my life and I have never planned it. It just happens. It is the same here in NTU. Almost all of my friends are so great that I wonder what have I done to be in their friend group(Nirnaya, this is just for your comment :P).

This post is dedicated to one of my good friend, Karthik Raveendran. One of the humblest person I have ever seen. Kind at heart and blessed with immense talent. You’ll probably know him as a great singer some time in the future.

I am in love with his sound. Listen to the following song. All the voices in the song belong to him, even the female voice
Ahimsa Apostle by krgkarthik

Crystals in the street.

Vivek — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:11:15 +0000

Orchard is the downtown of Singapore and the place is beautiful during Christmas. One great thing about Orchard is that, there will always be some street performance and mostly they will be awesome. Yesterday, I happen to see this guy performing crystal juggling and recorded it in my mobile. Posting it here, for you!

Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko

Vivek — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 09:18:59 +0000

From MIsc

Cycling

Vivek — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:02:42 +0000

Yes, I have been cycling to University for the last 2 weeks. You might have seen the last post I made when I bought a cycle here in Singapore. Someone stole that cycle soon after I bought that. I was not using that cycle much anyways and it was not my first experience in loosing a cylce. Anyhow, I bought a new one a couple of weeks back and the new cycle costs three times of that of the first one.

From Once upon a time in Singapore

Shimano gear system, shock absorbers and the wide handle accounts to the extra money. I also changed the seat to a ladies seat to have a good cushy seat. Seat in boys’ cycles here are so hard and small. Why do they think that only ladies’ bums need to be cared.

Now, that I shifted my apartment, cycling is the best way to reach University. It takes me around 15-20 minutes to reach my lab in the cycle. Earlier it used to take a minimum of 20 minutes to reach the lab in bus (with all the walking and waiting for the bus). Also, I know the streets around the University better now. Cycling always make you explore the shortcuts.

P.S: The funniest thing about the cycle is its name - “Uranus Conqueror”