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I Dunno

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by satchitananda, Jan 24, 2019.

  1. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    • Stop wasting your time. Go home, do your homework. Who's to learn your Physics? (remember those were the days when neighbours who did not have a telly watched it in the neighbour's house? Of course, parents would go too, so it was convenient for them to shoo kid home and continue to watch a favourite show - Chhaya Geet or Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan or a 'good' old movie.
    An example of the kind of 'education' I used to get in school.
    • You don't read the newspaper. What use is reading comics? Your GK is zero!
    Oh, the attack I was under as a kid and even as a younger sibling / daughter was not something to be laughed at! I marvel at the fact that I am here to tell the tale today!

    Times change. Soon the person gunning for me ..... hold your breaths ..... no, not the BH. It was myself. Why did I not know this? Or that, for that matter? Why was my GK so bad? I'd creep shamefaced into my shell and stay there till someone came to drag me out for a fight!

    ALL MY FAULT! I did not study enough when I was a kid, did not read enough educational books, wasted my time over 'story books' and comics, loved watching stupid serials.

    Not to say I did not have my own curiosities. For ex. watching the beating heart of a frog on the dissection table in school was very exciting (of course, we did not have to touch the frog! The teacher did a demo for us). Or other similar questions which were answered during the course of time, but slowly started to fascinate me less. Some things are best left unknown. The marvels of the unknown are irreplaceable.

    Times changed, as is their wont. The internet era took us like the tidal waves which hit Japan from time to time. I gave up 'story books' and took to various fora ..... like here! When I thought people had had enough of me even in their virtual lives, I took to educating myself with documentaries, entertaining myself on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

    So it was, while watching "Young Sheldon" today, a conversation hit me. The dad says something about how cool a solar charged calculator is. There was this wonder in his tone. His genius boy Sheldon had this strange look on his face as if to say "So?"

    Suddenly it came back to me. What would life be if we knew everything and all the wonder and magic was to be squeezed dry out of it? Am I glad that there are so many things we don't know yet. We can still scratch our little brains to make sense of it all. Is there a God? If there is, then what or who is God? What is he upto? Are there aliens? Are they friendly or hostile? Looking at a beautiful bird or a flower or happy playful dolphins or baby elephants brings so much more happiness than knowing their biological names, which genus or species they belong to etc.!

    So, I am content to live in my own little cocoon and enjoy life as it comes ..... of course with understandable interruptions when that machinery inside the skull makes too much noise! And then I'll come back here dancing to "Goli maro bheje Mein, Bheja shor karta hai!" "I dunno. Wish I did" is much better (and I am strictly speaking for myself) than "What do I find out next? I know everything. Oh life is so boring!"
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2019
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  2. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Oh, do you have to poke your nose into everything? Why don't you let us live in peace?
    Usual comment a man nearing 80 receives!
    Cocoon is a passing stage. You have to fly into freedom one day! You will get stranded in a wayside station otherwise!
     
  3. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Thanks for the boni, CS! :grinning: What people need to know that other people at either end of life are the most curious people in the world and are totally entitled to be so. If they don't, you can tell them from me!

    As for me, no worries. You certainly did not miss out on my caveat! :banana:
     
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  4. GeetaKashyap

    GeetaKashyap IL Hall of Fame

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    Satchi @satchitananda ,

    "I am another you."
    So much of "same to same" here but strictly no shame! I am content now with my wandering wondering mind. I still get to learn so many things everyday; thank God, life is not boring!
     
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  5. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Extremely glad to have you for company, Geeta! :laughing::laughing::laughing:
     
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  6. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Satchi,
    Curiosity to know things (both positive and negative), thirst for knowledge, poking nose as Cheeniya sir said the line is very thin. Anything in abundance loses value. Google we do but forget also soon... Because we did not do much effort. Click and got the answer. Does not retain in brain for long.
    My maid has a daughter who is in 9th grade. They were given an assignment to write about a natural calamity. It was those days of Kerala flood a few months back. Everyone in the class copied from Google, printout of pictures and submitted. Teacher returned everything and asked them to do the project without Google. Refer books, news papers etc. One day she came to my house for old newspapers. Sat in front of almirah where they are kept and took what she wanted and prepared.
    If we have answers for everything curiosity, enthusiasm and life would be boring. Better to make space in brain and leave many questions unanswered. Life would be interesting.
    Did I digress? May be!!!!
    Syamala
     
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  7. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    We get a somewhat modified reply from teenage kids... "I know what I have to do. I do not like to be told."
    Syamala
     
  8. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Satchi,

    In a constantly changing world, there is never an end to learn something new every day. We get awestruck to see the ease with which our children use the electronic gadgets. In the current internet world, information is everywhere for the seekers. I have learned most of what I know from people much younger than me. I have also learned so much of wisdom from the people older than me. The difference I see in me, is how much I listen when compared to younger days. My appetite for learning more and more is never reduced even one bit and I couldn't wait to be surprised everyday of what I don't know. Even among the people I interact, I am surprised everyday by something I never knew about them before.
     
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  9. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    In my youth, I was (slightly) dismissive of eggheads. Oh ...those bulging heads rattling away inconsequential and pretentious facts and excited about life-affirming discovery and truth and falsifiable knowledge. In retrospection, begrudged my inability to be like one of them through responsible scholarship.

    This quote by Richard Feynman helped me to realize that a knowledgeable person is not a knocked-out-cold person disenchanted about living for he has distancingly soared higher than the rest but from that towering flight he just looks down upon the world better.

    “I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2019
  10. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    @Novalis,

    I agree that everyone can see the beauty of a flower as much as others do. However, the left hemisphere of our brains is more investigative than the observant memory in the right hemisphere. There is a subtle segregation between the two, in my opinion. The artist may have to observe the aesthetic beauty in the right hemisphere in order to transfer that knowledge to the left hemisphere. Similarly, the scientist may have to use the senses first to observe and then think about every aspect of a flower's function.

    Aesthetic observation is more peripheral and mindful whereas study of artistic view or thinking about the inner structure is thoughtful converting the peripheral observation into in depth presentation. The excitement at each level is different, in my view.

    Example: If I am mindful, I will be able to observe the beauty of Marilyn Monroe whereas if I am thoughtful, her tragic life becomes dominant. :thinking:

    Viswa
     
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