Clubhouse: FOMO, gender and introverts

Around the end of May 2021, there was an explosion in the social media community of Keratitis. I am sure this may to other parts of India as well. The phenomenon was clubhouse!. Most of my Malayali friends had signed up for clubhouse and were having discussions on various topics for hours, if not for days. The covid lock-down and loneliness might be a reason for this enthusiasm. Nevertheless, it has become a cool kid hang out place. Some of the discussions had an 8K live audience.

Clubhouse is the most recent addition to social media. There are two fundamental differences between the clubhouse and the other social media platforms. One, it is audio-based. There is no option to express yourself through a text. Two, the conversation are “live only”. This means that there are no recorded conversations here. It is interesting to see that the restriction of many functionalities is making a platform more likeable. Discord is another platform that allows audio rooms along with Whatsapp like functionality (even more) for text messages. But clubhouse only has audio chat rooms which restrict you to use only live, verbal communication.

FOMO and clubhouse

Ever since the social media explosion, we are in constant fear of mission out (FOMO). I tried temporarily deactivating Facebook for a couple of months when I wanted to write my PhD thesis, back in 2016. After that, I felt like I cannot even understand this new language. It felt like so much has changed in few weeks. Not understanding the trending references and memes made me feeling left out.

The clubhouse is the ultimate FOMO machine! You cannot take part in the conversation that is already passed. Nor you can listen to it (unless someone recorded it). Often you feel miss out as people describe in other platforms about the “fun” they had in the discussions. This forces you to watch out for all the discussion that is happening all the time!

Nightmare for introverts

Who do you prefer to hang out with? An extrovert or an introvert? I tend to think more people like to be going out with extroverts. Generally, extroverts are the heroes of every group. They are the popular kids in school, they get patted by the elders and relatives. In college, they are the leaders. Everyone wants to be in a group full of extroverts. There is enormous peer pressure to act like an extrovert to make our voices heard. Extraverts have an undue advantage in the real world. Even in a professional environment, some firms like to hire people who are more charismatic in their appearance thinking that they will be more motivational to the group and be more efficient.

Social media changed this biased game forever. The charismatic extroverts are no longer the cool kids here. The main reason was the text-based platform. Merely being an extrovert (or introvert) will not make you a popular writer. The writing platform has a fair game for all spectrum of people. This is why many of the heroes from college don’t seem to “shine” on social media. Many popular kids in social media are introverts in real life. In a way. it gave some kind of democracy to social interactions.

Writing is mostly an introvert’s game. In a vocal environment, they fade away

People portray the clubhouse as the closest thing to a natural conversation. They feel that half of your argument is lost when you write it down. But who rules a natural conversation? The charismatic extroverts. In such a conversation, it doesn’t matter if your argument is valid or logical. All it matters is that whether you can make it convincingly. If you have a charming assertive voice you can shine

Making a point verbally without losing the chain of thought is a difficult process for many people. Many people need special training for acquiring such skills. If the discussion is on a public platform with a lot of listeners, the problems amplify. It is partly true that a platform like Clubhouse is a good place to develop these skills. But as an introvert, you are unlikely to be raising your hand moving to the speaker’s panel.

A gender issue

After joining the clubhouse and attending many discussions right and left, I shared the excitement with my partner. She asked

” So it’s just chat rooms, can we listen to it or respond to it after the discussion is over?”

“Nope. This is like a real discussion, if you are in it”

” I assume it will be full of men. When will women get this much free time to indulge in random real-time discussions !”

This was an angle that I never thought of. Text-based social media (even YouTube has a “comment” section) has given chance to the section of society who doesn’t have any time for socializing and being part of a discussion. For working women ( most of them who has to do household work when they come home) or women with kids (who needs their constant attention), text-based platforms give a chance to be part of the discussion or socializing. The responses or discussions are not been done in real-time and you can come back to a debate when you have some free time. Clubhouse discussions are inherently discriminatory for such sections of society. You may argue that it is the status quo ( that women should take care of the household and kids) needs to be changed. But why should they be discriminated against until it happened?

It is too early to predict the future of Clubhouse and the chance that it will replace the text-based platform. I bet that this initial interest will be down soon and this will be a platform to arrange discussion occasionally. And I hope text-based, easy-paced and in-depth discussions will continue despite this clubhouse mania.

The new era of productivity junkies

A productivity junkie is not the one who is productive but consumes lot of productivity contents on a regular basis

Despite what the title suggests, the article doesn’t mean to be a condescending one. many of you might come across new-gen productivity books and videos. I personally have been on this journey for quite some time. Some of these ideas were helpful. But often I feel the urge to go through more content about the same topic as I slip to the inevitable entropy of life and chaos. The reason I am writing this is to have some clear reflection on myself. I am putting it out there on the internet since this might be relevant to someone who is on the same path.

The trigger for this article happened when I was watching a video by Ali Abdal, a young productivity guru on YouTube, explaining how he remembers every book that he reads. This is one of the most relatable problems for me. I used to read non-fiction books. But when I had to explain the book or some points discussed in it, my mind goes blank (followed by self-pity that if I cannot take away anything from a book why bother reading it). We can discuss this topic another time. But what struck me most is one of the comments made by a follower.

I know the YouTube comment section is a rabbit hole. Still, I was checking through them to see the reaction of different people on the subject. There were many praises, some success stories and some puns. The comment which made me laugh and later think is the following one.

It got more than 2K likes and many people responded saying that they were doing the same thing. Why this is so familiar? Are we all falling into this trap of getting high on productivity video instead of actually being productive? Please don’t expect any solution from this article. All I wanted to do some self-reflection, which in turn might lead to some solutions.

Procrastination of the intellect

Back in my PhD days, I used to have the habit of hearing some of my favourite sitcoms while doing work that doesn’t need much attention. I reasoned that these do not need any deep brain activity. And if I hear something enjoyable, I can spend more time doing the work without mental resistance. This worked initially and I could spend long hours in the lab. But over time, I noticed that this will change your focus from finishing the job to mindlessly do something. And I started making a lot of mistakes.

This is nothing but procrastination of the intellect. Being cognitively active is a painful, tiring process. We often need to switch off our brain to reduce the cognitive load. Deep work requires your cognitive system to be active for a long time. But the monkey in your brain is convincing you that work can be done even after shutting off your brain by consuming content. The biggest issue with such an approach is that you will have even higher resistance to come back from that lazy state. And you will end up doing ineffective work for a long time without good results.

One solution to this is a good work-life distinction that reduces your mental resistance. Fixing the time of exit every day is one of the best ways. This is the step that I fail often. The open-ended working hours are generally not good for productivity. That reminded me of something! I need to read the book “Deep Work” by Carl Newport. A quick appreciation by Amit Varma can be read here

Productivity porn

Eventually, after many dark days, guilt kicked in and I started to fight this urge to switch off the mind. This was years back and at that time the productivity porn was not this popular. After following the pursuit of productivity, I notice that I am in constant judging mode. I am criticizing myself for every minute of the hour that I have “wasted”. Rather than being active, thought of being active consuming a lot of time.

After being “productivity awake”, you want to convince yourself that you are always productive. Here sitcoms are being replaced by productivity video. You have the false sense that this will help you for being more productive. But eventually, it’s another way of procrastination.

I have nothing against people who follow these videos or books. But getting addicted to consuming more and more productivity content is not the solution. The same goes for productivity apps. After listening to different people I hoped between app to app for taking notes, scheduling etc. The final result is nothing but utter chaos. Later I tried to stick to one tool for one purpose. Notion for taking notes and casual writing, outlook calendar for reminder and planning and One Note for work-related writings and notes. For the basic to-do list and tracking a months progress ( again work), I went old school, thanks to the whiteboard behind my desk.

But where does it end? If you follow one method, you are not following a thousand methods at the same time. How can you be sure that yours is the best? What if you become so mechanical about it?

Being mindfully productive

This takes painful practice. If I say that I have achieved this state, I would be lying. However, I try to be in this state most of the time. Mindfulness is generally associated with mediation (which I am not a big fan of). But the context here is a bit different. Rather than the mindless following of one method or a productivity guru, one may take pauses and have a self-reflection. Dare to ask questions to yourself that, is it working alright? Am I being consistent here? Am I just satisfying myself to procrastinate from the real work? or am I wasting time thinking about not being productive?

Even when you achieve this mindful state, you may fall off the wagon often. But the consistent approach will help you to intervene. You may take the help of your guru or book or method in this process. The tricks and tips they share are to be taken only as a way to get back to the game. Watch out for the little monkey in your head fooling yourselves. A productivity junkie is not so far from a Netflix junkie.

The dark room

As kids we used to play a game called dark room. The game is similar to hide and seek but set in a room with lights off and windows shut. One who seeks needs to find other kids, and identify them by touching. This game was a hit especially when we visited the old family house of our great grandma. The house was in the middle of a forest full of mango trees.  The whole second floor of the house can be made dark by closing the wooden windows. Many distant cousins and friends used to come for vacation and the number of players can reach 10-15.  Most of us were stepping into teens, and the touch in the dark made the game exciting.

One day we started playing in the morning. I wanted to outsmart them and was looking for a clever hiding place. The house had a conical roof with tiles. Below the roof there were wooden beams where you can put sacks full of grains. I climbed up, laid down in the tiny gap between the roof and the grain sacks.  The plan was perfect. I could hear the seeker walking below. But he didn’t find me. I laughed inside thinking that no one will be able to find me out. 

With time I started losing trust in my choice. What if nobody bothered to look for me? .  I took a peek through the gap of  sacks and saw the room was empty. In the dark, on the second floor of a hundred year old house, I was alone. The intense smell of grain made my head spin.  In panic, while climbing down, I fell on the floor and hurt my knee. Hobbling through the dark corridor, I went to the other rooms to look for my cuisines.  I managed to switch on the lights and the whole floor was empty. All my friends might be making fun of me while having mangoes downstairs. The feeling of being left alone, untouched was unbearable.  

Three years ago, when the lock down started, things were not this bad. The whole world was full of people sharing the similar phase. We engaged in lock down groups for making tic tok videos, for making in-home gardens, fitness training and other activities. But after months, with no light at the end of the tunnel, people got tired of the whole thing. Every month I used to talk to the counsellor and after a point I was sure who was helping whom. You cannot tell your problems to anyone since they have the same or even bigger problems. Whole society was silently going into a mental lockdown. No words will make any reader feel about my situation. Nobody now cares for a story about someone’s pain.  

On a rainy day I was walking to the store to get instant noodles. Someone walked into me.  “ Can I walk with you to the store?” she asked. 

This was the first first in months (or years? , I’m not sure) someone talked to me in person other than the store owner. Meeting of two people was banned, but I couldn’t think of it then. 

“Sure, why not?” I said. 

“Thank you I haven’t talked to someone in a million years” 

“Well I had a party with 200 people last night” I said. 

“ Ha, nice to see your imagination doesn’t have any lock down” . We both laughed

She was an arts major student who never saw the campus. She talked about art, her work on plays and the need to tell stories of our time. I was unsure about my talking skills, mainly the body language. But we seem to get along well. We talked about childhood and I told her my story of the dark room. She seems stunned for a moment !  

“What happened?”, I asked 

She stopped, removed her mask and looked at my face.  “ Please don’t hate me, but I am pretty sure I was in the group which left you alone” 

 How small is the world !. What are the odds of finding  an old friend in a far away city during a lockdown ? Is she lying ?

“Really?” I tried to hide my shock “But I don’t remember you. Did we meet after that?” 

She smiled “ No, I was visiting one of my friends house, and she invited me to that haunted house” 

While walking back from the stores, we laughed about the good old times. She was walking close by and our hands were touching. The only living thing that touched me in moths was the cat that used to visit my room for milk. I tried not to show the way I felt. We talked about movies, books and arch rivals.  She asked whether she can visit me sometime. We hugged before saying goodbye.  All of a sudden life has changed its color.

She visited my room every other week. We played cards, video games, cooked food and sometimes made out. Though there were many close moments, I was unsure how she felt about me. 

“ Your cousin will not be so happy to hear that I am dating you”  she said once. “She was the only one who felt bad for you on that day. I always felt she had a crush on you” 

“Hmm I should give her a call, then” I said. 

Her response was a bit abrupt.  “ Typical ! You men dont value the things in your life. Always putting your dick out for potential pray while forgetting how miserable you were. You should feel lucky that I found you. Otherwise you would have rotten in this shithole”

  “That was a joke, and why do you hang out with me if you think I am a loser?”

We fought with each other for an hour. I even feared the neighbors would call the cops as the visitors were illegal. After some point we were not sure what was the fight originally about. For the next couple of months there was no contact. I didn’t know where she was living. She was not returning my calls.  I walked around lane by lane hoping to meet her. I got fined three times by the police for leaving my allowed space.  

On a stormy night she knocked on the door. Her clothes were all wet. She kissed me the moment I opened the door. She said sorry for the fight and hugged me closely. Her fingers, smell and touch felt magical. Things got heated up very soon and she started ripping off my cloths

“Let’s switch off the radiator and lights” she said

“ But it’s freezing in here”

“We have all the heat we need, and let’s play the dark room”

I couldn’t resist the passion. I got up to switch off the lights. 

“I have a better idea, ”  she jumped up.

She ran outside the house and pulled down the fuse in the basement. She rushed back to the room and locked the door. It was the darkest room I have ever seen. We kissed again for minutes and she had that intense smell of grain.  In the lightning I saw her bare body and she was calling me to climb up.

From the table I took a step to the cupboard, then I stepped on to the grain sack. The roof was almost touching my body, and I feared it may squeeze me down. The intense smell of grains consumed me. I heard her laughter fading away and the sound of locking the door. Some of the water droplets drifted through the tiles while I was lying on the sack, frozen, afraid and untouched.  

Remains of a city : A call from PRL

It was the summer of 2010. I got the offer letter from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) , Ahmedabad. I was working at MG College Thiruvananthapuram as a project fellow. My guide, then HOD, was reluctant to send me off and I had a tough time convincing him. He even threatened me that I will have to give back my whole salary. I almost dropped the plan. Fortunately, other faculties came for help and convinced him for letting me go. Hence I packed my bags and took a train to Vadodara (former Baroda) first.  One of my distant cousin Devettan is a faculty in the Baroda university in the fine arts department. So I went to visit him first and then moved to Ahmedabad on the next day. 

As I was never rooted anywhere, I didn’t had any feeling of uprooting and I was enthusiastic to explore the new place. PRL is situated in the new city of Ahmedabad. The center was initiated by the late visionary  Vikram Sarabhai who was the founder of space program in India. He gave away his land for the development of institutes like PRL, ATIRA and IIMA. The new city was a relatively posh area with malls and multiplexes everywhere. The old city, however, was congested and had more traditional markets and historic structures. The class differences between the people living in new and old cities were apparent. There was a religious difference as well. Old city was primarily occupied by Muslims who are mainly small shop owners. The wealthy Gujarati business people, academics etc who were predominantly from Hindu and Jain communities were in the new city. The river Sabarmathi separates the two contrasting shades of Ahmedabad. 

I got a room in a quarters in the residential compound of PRL. This was situated in Navrangpura and IIM Ahmedabad was just opposite to our campus. The hostel life was lively and I met many people from all over India.  My seniors in the institute were welcoming and through them I became familiar with the whole PRL community. I was a project associate in the geological science division (GSDN). I had nothing to do with geology, but the method of dating old stones involved a lot of physics. I must say, I enjoyed learning new techniques. I didn’t had much difficulty in catching up with the subject and experimental procedure, again, thanks to the seniors. 

The experience of Ahmedabad was, of course, new since I had not lived in any metropolitan city. Moreover, I was financially independent. I could afford eating out in restaurants and go for movies. Though the pay was an average one compared to a private job, the daily expenses were marginal. The subsidized meal at PRL was Rs 5.50 only and the hostel meal was about Rs 30-s40. However, the world outside PRL was not so cheap. I still remember my shocking discovery of metropolitan expenses at a  multiplex theaters. Costly tickets and small screen felt like a rip off to me. I couldn’t digest the idea of  getting a water bottle for Rs 40  just because we were in a multiplex. But soon enough I got familiar and adjusted to the  city. I also had chance to go around to the  other places like Udaipur and Jaipur in Rajasthan. Ahmedabad is a good place to center on if you want to explore the western part of India. 

PRL was my gateway to the research world. A first hand experience on how things work in a research institution was a real eye opener. A year after, I cleared the PhD entrance test and joined as a student at PRL. I changed my subject to quantum optics and finished my PhD in 2016. Now I am a senior researcher at National university of Singapore.  This would have not been possible if PRL had not called me for the post of project fellow. Or if I had refused to quit my old job at Thiruvananthapuram fearing the HOD.  It is important to look back and see the choices you have made and its consequences.  Indeed, all cannot be the best ones. But his looking back can help you in the choices you make now. 

When I started writing this series 4 years ago, I was in Ahmedabad, full of content to write. But somehow I procrastinated the writing process and  now I  have forgotten most of it. Now the series name “remains of a city” has become more suitable since I am writing the incidents that stuck with me. The memories that remain are the ones probably  that matter. Let me finish this write-up for now. Thinking about the old times opens up the door of several memories. I guess I can give it a try for the series to move forward. The version may not be the real truth, it may be coated with my perception of it  while recalling it from the memory. But that is true for most of the story telling.   Its important to look back !

Ahmedabad: Remains of a city – prologue

Here we are, too foreign for the home, too foreign for here, neither enough for both.-  Ijeoma Umebinyuo

 

Window art of Sidi Saiyyed Mosque

Today I was coming from the fish market of old Ahmedabad, and suddenly I realized how long I have been living here ! Seven years of my late twenties !. That is a long period of considering one’s quality life span. This is the city where we, me and my partner Swapna, started our lives together. This is the city where our son Milan Azad was conceived. And I have completed my doctoral study from here. Its true beyond doubt that this city means a lot to me. When I was crossing the underpass near Gandhi bridge, it occurred to me “why not writing the experiences of this city ? “.

I am not so great in exploring new places. So obviously I haven’t  seen even 30% of Ahmedabad. So I cant give a complete description of the entire city.  During the ride from that underpass to my quarters near IIM, many incidents and places occurred to me which will be worth sharing. But when I sad down to write something my brain started elimination round. Many of them felt too personal experiences, which sometime I feel its pointless to share. Fear of incompleteness and monotonous  descriptions overpowered my enthusiasm of writing. Thus I decided to write this prologue. Honestly, I dont know what I am going to write. It may so happen that I might leave it after two or three articles.

Now, how do I proceed?As of now I have decided to do it in a random fashion. First I thought I will tell my experience in a time ordered manner. But later that felt to be too monotonic. Another question is that in what perspective I will describe it. Gujrat and Ahmedabad has great importance and relevance in Indian politics with its  notorious history of riots. Certainly this was my first concern while coming to Ahmedabad. I am not going to be too political in the description. However, I don’t think I can be completely apolitical throughout.

So here is the plan. I wish to write some of my experiences and fun and discoveries of Ahmedabad which is essentially what remains when you leave the place. Many of them, I wish, will be relatable to you. Essentially it might be a diary of memories about the city.

# most of the pictures that I share are my random shots. I will be mentioning otherwise

 

Wildfire in my room

Its, too far

Probably nothing to worry

Wind is still cold.

But

Am I the only one

Who is smelling the fire ?

No, I am not insane,

Here it is !

My floor is on fire !

My books, bed and the pillows

Bansuri flute given by my late teacher

All are burning down

It catches the wall and holds on to

Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”.

It burns the top right of the canvas

Yah ! the brain god is burning !

Resisting to become ashes, it burns and burns..

Thus in the midst of this metropolitan city,

In this multi storied building

A room burned down of wildfire tonight

Silently, invisibly, anonymously.

 

Image: From movie Sacrifice  by Tarkovsky

How real and original our emotions are ? What does “Westworld” tells you ?

We hardly think about how our predictable actions and responses are. Recently I noticed something which was too wired. I found that I used to use same sentences without even a change of a word or characters for a particular thing in far different instants of time. I noticed when checking the way I save files especially file names. For different experiments when I had to take similar kind of measurements, I often use the same wired file names  !  Same goes with a mail, too. So does it mean that, given the same or similar initial conditions, our brains are restricted to give the same response? Then how far we are from a super robot?

I generally keep my distance from philosophy as it tend to play with our rationality. The new HBO web series “Westworld”opened me up for a philosophical quest about the nature of “originality” of our experiences. There was one particular scene which I felt worth mentioning. Its on episode 8 of season 1.   Don’t worry I am not giving the spoilers.

The HBO describes the series like this

The one-hour drama series Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.

Humans creates a huge park with many characters played by artificial intelligent human like robots. Tourists come there to satisfy their wildness, lust, curiosity etc.  Dr. Robert, played by Antony Hopkins, with his companion Arnold, built the place 30 years ago. Arnold, who was concerned about the emotions of the artificial humans whom they called hosts,  died in the westworld (the park) long back. I wont go much into the story.

The interesting characters are of course the hosts. They are programmed to to respond particularly to every situation, and by experiences they are allowed to improvise their characters. Even in such cases the program can display his/her next words and actions. But the world is too chaotic and any evolution in line are really susceptible to the initial conditions. So an infinite parameters infinite loop artificial intelligence and a human mind are not so different. But human mind is also not with infinite options to a given question. So at one point one cannot differentiate between an artificial intelligence which is destined to respond according to an algorithm and human. Here is a dialogue between the creator Dr. Robert and one of his creation. At one instant he realize that he is not a real human and then questions the reality of his emotions.

Mr. X : I do not understand the things that I feel. Are they real ?  the things I experienced, my wife, the loss of my son. 

Dr. Robert : Every host needs a backstory Mr. X, you know that. The self is a kind of fiction.For hosts and humans alike. Its a story we tell our self and every story need a beginning.  Your imagined suffering makes you life like

 

Mr. X: “Life like” but not alive? Pain only exist in the mind, its always imagined. So what is the difference between my pain and yours? between you and me?

Dr. Robert : This was the very question that consumed Arnold. Filled him with guilt eventually drove him mad.  The answer always seemed obvious to me.There is no threshold, that makes us greater than some of our parts , no inflection point which we become fully alive. We can’t define the consciousness because consciousness doesn’t exist. Humans fancy that there is something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops. as tights and closed as the hosts do. Seldom questioning our choices, content for the most part to be told what to do next. No my friend, you are not missing anything at all. 

The scene is so intense especially with Antony Hopkins voice. I am loving the show. The show kept me thinking about the wonder of human intellect and creativity. But is it really necessary to be a biological human to have those?  I believe that the free will of the human brain comes from the complexity of the very brain and its neuron network. So an electronic (or any other artificial) network which offer’s number of solutions to choose for a given problem and be able to process from the experiences which will be used in choosing the solutions in the next time can essentially replace a human brain. Our feel of the self is due to the brain. So  if  such network can be achieved one can transfer her/his self to the network and be immortal !

The Goddamn Particle!

Science is a rational and methodological approach to study the universe. Mythical stories and blind believes are of no importance in the scientific progress. It progresses through the analysis of theories, counter theories and proofs. So it is not a wonder if one gets surprised when he/she hear “Scientists invented God Particle!. The so called tag of God has invoked hell a lot of misconceptions among the layman.

The subatomic fundamental particle Higgs Boson (named after Peter Higgs and Indian scientist S.N Bose), for which its existence has not been proved unambiguously, is known as the “God particle” .  It is  the Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman who coined  it in his book titled “The God Particle- If Universe Is The Answer, What Is The Question”.  Initially he decided to give the name “Goddamn particle”, which he found more appropriate,  but the publisher was not agreeing on that. So that was a commercial name (!) for the publicity of the book. Peter Higgs himself told “it has nothing to do with God, but I can understand why people go that way because it is so important to our understanding of nature”.

The experimental proof of its (Higgs Boson) existence has a major impact in particle physics and cosmology. The existence and non existence will result the validation or rejection ( a kind of) of The Standard Model of particle physics.  That may encouraged  Leon Lederman  to give such name. Otherwise it has no connection with GOD or SATAN !.

The standard model deals with the fundamental particles and forces in the universe.  It contains 6 quarks, 6 leptons (eg. electron) and four gauge bosons (force carriers eg. photon) and studies about their interactions.  It had flourished after the unification of electromagnetic and weak forces (1968). Out of the 4 gauge bosons W and Z bosons are massive particle. But adding a rest mass to them violates some basic laws ( gauge invariance). One solution was the introduction of Higgs mechanism in which the particle interacts with Higgs field and gains the mass. The quantization of Higgs field results the Higgs Boson. W and Z bosons have been detected experimentally in1983.  The ambiguity was about Higgs Boson.  For its detection, scientists initiated big experiments like ATLAS and CMS in the Large Hadron Collider. The experiments involve  collision between  high energy proton beams. In 2012 April they achieved individual beam energy as 4 TeV resulting a collisional energy of 8 TeV. By 2014 they are planning to increase it up to 7 TeV for individual beams and 14 TeV for the collision.

ON July 4, 2012 they have announced about the detection of a particle with mass 126GeV in 5 sigma confidence level (99.999%).  This is  most likely to be the Higgs Boson. But the more detailed conformation has not come yet. If it is Higgs, this will be the greatest victory of Standard Model. If it is not, something more exotic is waiting to be revealed.

Politics of “Nudity”

Nudity is of interest of mankind from times after they have started dressing up! We can see the influence of nudity right from the oldest literature and art forms. Portraying nudity is one of all time favorite  of painters, photographers and cinematographers. Nudity, especially that of women, has an international market value and hence is an economic commodity. Even though nudism is accepted in some part of the world, it is an internationally prohibited activity by the societies.

There are incidents in the history that the naked women body becoming a political issue. All over the world there were many nude protests against war, sex tourism, bullfighting etc. In India in Manipur many women protested accusing mass rape of Indian army over there.  In Kerala, India, there were political protests by low cast women called “chest covering revolt”. It was for their right to cover the chest since it was banned by the upper casts (early 20th sanctuary ). Now the ongoing fight in Islamic countries is the opposite, to uncover the body.

Aliya Magda El-Mahdi  a 20-year-old student of journalism at Cairo’s American University, who describes herself as a secularized liberal feminist, an individualist and a vegan, posted nude photos of herself and her boyfriend. She said she was protesting against social inequality, Islamic censorship, racism, gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

Her description in the blog is as follows

“Put on trial the artists’ models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression”

You can see the blog here http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.com/

Now the question is that what is forcing her to pose herself undressed before the world. Is it only for the publicity?Does she really intend to free the women from religious fanaticism? Or if she is just a stupid teenager girl who don’t know the seriousness of the issue?

The last comment can be easily falsified if you look at her previous posts. Now the thing is publicity. One can go up to any extent to get publicity. But the question is that on the cost of what? Here her life has become insecure because of her action. We will not be surprised tomorrow by hearing the news of assassination of Aliya. Religious fanaticism is proliferating  like anything nowadays. So we can’t say its a mere publicity show.

Protests against Burqa have a long years of history. Burqa is now become a symbol of marginalization of women by religion and societies. Stagnant nature of orthodox religions abandons the reforms in the societies. Its not solely about about “Islam” (even though the present issue is) but rather an orthodox society. Burqa may be suitable for the climate of Arab countries, but mimicking the same in all other climates is a stupidity. Moreover it spreads a wrong message that exhibiting a women’s body, even face!, is one of the greatest sin.  This is a rule of male dominant society not of a religion.

Thus the nudism by Aliya is not for the sake of nudism but clearly is a protest against the orthodox community , a call from the Areb female world for the freedom of expression and a voice of oppressed against the pseudo moral people. Some people’s opinion is that the way of protesting is unacceptable. But if she had protested with a mere placard we would not have informed about such a protest. And moreover what elegant way of protest you expect from a community which is being marginalized right from the known history.  For their voice to be heard to the outside world, it should be loud enough. That is what Aliya did. She utilized the emotional weakness of people (regarding nudity) to popularize her struggle. That is the need of time. And in maximum discussion it is not her body that being discussed, but the issue of freedom of expression.

I appreciate Aliya for the courage she has shown.  She showed that nudity is also a political weapon. It can shake the pillars of the pseudo morality and religious hypocrisy. Its a beginning. The struggle (not the nudism) should spread the dark corners of society for a better social condition.

To begin with

Its an attempt to express myself.   I used to complain about many bloggers that they are treating the blog as a personal diary. I’d rather like it to be a diary of thoughts. In English its hard for me to become casual writer.  I hope I can write more seriously and certainly I don’t like it as just a time pass. I wanted it to be a good discussion platform. Science, politics, education,movies,  literature.. all are my favorites. Let’s see how it goes!!