The Meaning Without We live in an uncertain world. Uncertainty ticks relentlessly at the core of the universe, i.e., the world of subatomic particles. Laws that govern this realm can be formulated and understood only in terms of the laws of probability. This esoteric branch of physics was discovered in the beginning of twentieth century and was called Quantum Mechanics. Over the years, its truth and its powers of prediction of natural phenomena- a major test of the veracity of any scientific theory- have been confirmed incontrovertibly. Richard Feynman, a Noble laureate and a celebrated Quantum physicist, compared the precision of Quantum prediction to measuring of distance between New York and Los Angeles accurately to the width of one human hair. But quantum physics is also unfathomably counterintuitive. Einstein, one of the forefathers of Quantum physics, could never accept the inherent uncertainty in the working of universe, on which this exact science is predicated. He cons

Hi! I talk about books after a long break. In these disturbed times, I am a little ashamed to admit that I have not found the unforeseen leisure that has fallen in my lap, disagrreable. I read more than I usually do. And also found time to finish some long-pending writing.  Perilous times test rational beliefs most severely. An impending doom which seems to eclipse all hope and from which no escape appears in sight, confounds reason. Heart if not mind, then restlessly seeks solace in faith. Faith in the boundless kindness of an unknown but omnipotent superpower. But a moment’s pause should disabuse the gullible heart of its incredulous belief. It seeks reprieve from the same power that unleashed the apocalypse. Corona scourge has highlighted role of science in human life while religion has taken backseat. Governments all over the world are formulating, evaluating and reinventing strategies to ward off this virus through and solely on the advice of leading scientists of t

                                                                                                                                            Science/Faith Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible Jerry A. Coyne For long I harboured a view that science is good at answering ‘what and how’ questions on life and universe, while the most vital ‘why’ questions belong to the realm of religion. In last decade I read some books on the nature and origin of universe. Many of these were written by thinkers and scientists who have been in the forefront of this quest. This reading informs me, with as conclusive evidence as human mind is at the present moment capable of propounding, that though some ‘why’ questions still remain unanswered, scientists all over the world are doggedly working at the frontiers of knowledge and claiming inch by inch, the land of ignorance. To attribute all that science cannot explain to a nebulous concept of God: whose nature is unknowable, wh

                                                                                                                                                        Travel A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson Appalachian Trail, the ‘Granddaddy of long hikes’ runs for about 2,200 miles through the lush woods of Appalachian Mountains along the eastern sea board of USA from Maine in the north to Georgia in the south. Bill Bryson has a brilliant idea of embarking on this long hike and he has Stephen Katz, last seen with him in Europe in Neither Here nor There , as his companion. And the result is this humorous account of the trek. Both Katz and Bryson are not trekkers by creed or profession and the trek is daunting. They have to trudge through deep woods for days without coming across any human habitation, clamber up innumerable peaks and descend the treacherous slopes repeatedly, weather beastly blizzards and incapacitating heavy snow and sleep in tents or open shelters in perpetual fear of be

                                                                                                                                                        Travel Slowly Down The Ganges Eric Newby There are many breeds of travel authors. Some like Paul Theroux are, it seems to me, weary of their travels. They find fault with everything in the journey. One wonders why do they travel at all. Some like Colin Thubron see hidden meaning in every sight, every people they encounter. They write heavy, ponderous prose. Writers like Graham Greene write captivating prose of their inner journeys, spawned by the travel they have undertaken. Fiction writers like Somerset Maugham have no patience with landscape. They look for the vagaries of human nature in the variety of behaviour of people they encounter in their travels. Then there are travel writers like Bill Bryson and Eric Newby, who find incredible humour in every situation, in every place, every stranger, they come across during

Essay A Mathematician's Apology G.H. Hardy 'I propose to put forward an apology for mathematics...' says G.H. Hardy, one of the greatest mathematicians of twentieth century as he opens the first chapter in this book. He explains in the chapter what he feels a real mathematician ought to be doing; 'It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to do something, to prove a new theorem, to add to mathematics, and not to talk about what he or other mathematician have done.' This sadness, this awareness that the powers which were his one source of supreme joy as a creator and which have now abandoned him and the honest admission of the same, pervades the essay like its soul. Another palpable quality is its most measured, pithy but supremely lucid and elegant prose. This is a work of a master craftsman. How I wish Hardy had written more and lengthier books, however a

                                                                                                                                                      Novel The Comedians Graham Greene On a ship bound for the strife torn Haiti, are travelling four white passengers. Mr Smith, who has been an American presidential candidate in past, and his wife; Mr Jones, a British citizen, bound for Haiti on a clandestine mission; and Mr Brown, the narrator of the tale, who is returning to Haiti to reclaim the hotel he owns there and his love for Martha, wife of a South American diplomat stationed in Haiti. Brown is possibly an illegitimate child. His mother never revealed to him his father’s identity. He was raised and educated by Jesuits in Monte Carlo. He has always felt rootless: attached neither to the soil of a country or to the demands of human relations. His mother who has led a colourful, dissolute life has been absent from his life for decades till she invites him to Haiti, where

Meaning In It All Man lives on food, water and air but not for them. Evolutionary science has conclusively shown that in a world with scarce resources and a fierce competition for these, the sole objective of every living being is to secure these fruits for its own survival, in a struggle to leave behind maximum progeny. This principle governs all human behaviour at its core. It operates silently at the level of our genes, by selecting those genes from the pool which code for such behaviour as will maximise their survival.  But we do not fall in love in order to produce a large brood, nor do we look after our children only because they are the means of propagation of our genes. We do things that seem far removed from this Malthusian world of struggle for survival. And it appears we live for them. We sing and dance with our friends, we tell unbelievable tales, we invent wildly improbable supernatural beings and equally preposterous means to appease them, we pierce our bodies to