Stuff

Facebook

By the start of this year, I had made up my mind; bye bye facebook. I implemented on my resolution and deleted Facebook from my phone. It wasn't a difficult choice where I felt perplexed. I wasn't too reliant on it anyway. I have never been a huge fan of Facebook, primarily because it is a parasite. Most people do realise this but sort of overlook it (?). Facebook feeds on our privacy. It builds up cookies on us (No, not the tasty type of cookies, the type that contain sensitive information about our browsing data and cache) Facebook is itself just a platform or rather the centre of the web. Basically whenever you authorise an app to access your Facebook data, you're not being beneficial to the app developers, you are being generous to the pseudo-human i.e Mark Zuckerberg (I have a conspiracy theory that Zuckerberg died in 2010 and this is his clone. Go figure) Every website or application log in associated with Facebook channels all the information to Facebook whose algorithm acts as a magnet for advertising agencies. Of course there are other companies such as Amazon which engage in similar activities of using our algorithms but none do so under a pretext. For the record, Amazon is probably my heavily betted company because of simply how gigantic it is. It literally is going to affect every single walk of the human life in the near future. Apple is more of a fashion company than technology. But lets retrace from the tangent and bring Facebook back to the limelight. The fact that Instagram is a Facebook owned company, doesn't help the case much. Without doubt, it aggravates the matter.
Of course, you can call me a hypocrite. "Why are you using Facebook then, Mehwar?" This is the catch. A paradoxical loop. Facebook is working because its.....working. I am compelled to check on this weirdly snug Facebook application everyday because most of my friends and families connect to it daily. Facebook shot through the skies in its early days. It is that same momentum which has carried it past the inertia. Indubitably there is always the option of isolation from online social contacts but that feels too strict. Maybe in the future?
Oh, and I just realised they have advertisements in the videos too now. Way to go!

13 Reasons Why

I have been wanting to do this since forever but I've never quite found the time until now. The phenomena that is 13 reasons why. FACEPALM. To be honest, I cannot judge it properly. Why not? Because I have never watched the show. Maybe some clips online here and there but not even a single complete episode. Why? Because I've read the novel by Jay Asher and it was more than enough to convince me that the show was not worth it. Yet it has been the top banana for all the wrong reasons. Now, I have been told that the show has some different details than the novel and the fact that there will be a season 2 whereas Asher finished the story already further distinguishes them. It still doesn't negate the critical point from debate. I have a pretty little idea.Here are 13 reasons why, 13 reasons is not really as good as it is claimed:

1) Its set in a school. A damn school. I mean, if you're going to set an entire show around a school, you better try to avoid the cliché, right? Nope. 13 reasons why prods those cliché ideas: bullying and public relationships to create a fuss out of nothing.
2) Its perfectly targeted. I am not sure if this goes in the good corner or the bad one. But, this show knew who will be hit hard by it and it made sure to deliver a mighty strike
3) Its about suicide. This is a sensitive topic. When you know you are targeting a young audience, who are most susceptible to such ideas, you must be careful. Right? RIGHT?

Jay Asher: So this is about suicide.

Most teens will read it.

Lets be careful

His conscience: Fork it!

4) Hannah Baker. Le Damsel in Distress. Bad stuff happened to Hannah. I sympathise. But, at times Hannah's reaction was melodramatic. At times, she created her own problems. And most importantly, I think what Hannah needed most was some crazy luck charm. That girl really had some bad luck going on. How else could there be so much wrong in your life? It looked like as if every facet of her life was just calamity! Way to exaggerate it out of proportion.

5) The way this show presents suicide is not just right. It dramatizes suicide. Logically, religiously and by all canons of human mind and culture, suicide is shunned. Its wrong. What does this show reveal? It presents it as a means of what suicide is exactly not. A way to escape. Hannah did it and now she has a sinister plan that will bring down all her friends. SLOW CLAP. It portrayed Hannah as immune. Like now her master-plan of revenge can finally be complete. For all I know, the next season might be that there was a 14th reason and that was all of the world. It would end with Hannah posthumously being elected as the President of the entire world.

6) Poor Hannah. Wrong. Cowardly Hannah. Correct. Ding ding ding. Facing her problems could've faced Hannah from so many further issues. Instead she decides to keep them in the back of her mind to conjure her sick trick (welps that rhymed).

7) Guess what? I am going to pull the good ole trick out of the book and state that the idea of the show and the novel was so sick that I cant even bring myself to write all the 13 reasons. But trust me, I really could go till 1300 reasons.

I know there's this lot who might potentially argue about the superb acting or the awareness. If you want good acting, go watch The Man in High Castle or Gotham. As for awareness...who are you kidding? That's an alibi for everything these days.

Sleep

What would be an ideal sleep time for a person that would allow him to be successful in this domain of era? Everyday lasts for 24 hours (duh). Most listicles will show it to be 7 hours. By spending 7 hours we are basically consuming a third of it almost, to rest when we actually need far less. Research has proven and shown that humans don’t need 7 hour sleep. Its not a set time span or anything. The sleep requirement for every person varies. A teenager who spends all his day being a couch potato needs less sleep than a teenager who does a lot of exercise or mental work. Personally I believe maybe 6 hours is good enough. Also, according to research, our bodies function at top efficiency after 9AM (almost) and we need a nap mid day to recharge our energy level. If we can do that, then the sleep time at night reduces further. Maybe it would be more feasible to have a three hour nap after lunch and then sleep for a further 3 hours at 3AM. But that's impractical. That's not how the world works.

Leonardo Da Vinci used to sleep 25 (or was it 20?) minutes each hour. Its called the polyphasic sleep cycle. He slept for 2 hours in total and he was quite successful at whatever he did. Edison practiced the same thing (but his success is another conundrum altogether). Tesla did not practice the polyphase sleep cycle but he also slept for only two hours. Obama, Freud and many people the society deems successful sleep/slept for 6 hours. Quite similar to this is the Uberman Sleep cycle.

Now of course we cannot duplicate his sleeping pattern for obvious reasons but it at least gives us a standard.

6 hours is good enough.

To check an infographic about the sleep pattern of our ‘heroes’, see this.

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Don't forget to check my Medium profile.

If you don't know what Medium is, its this sick website and application where you can find interesting information. Its froody. Give it a go! (Way to do Medium's bidding *eye roll*)

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CRISPR

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

2017 has just rushed in, to alter our lives, hopefully for the best. As the year lies ahead of us, our brain starts thinking about various things. The best movie of 2017? The most awkward moment of 2017? The biggest breakthrough of science in 2017? Luckily, I might have a good guess what the answer to the third question would be.

Entereth CRISPR. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats or CRISPR (pronounced crisper) is a gene editing tool which is not very different from the cutting edge technologies we witness in fiction books and movies. CRISPR uses enzymes such as Cas9 to identify and target specific links in a DNA stand. Lets for the sake of simplicity, not make it technical. CRISPR was originally found in Bacteria but through some basic genetic engineering has been extracted from these species of bacteria and now can be used in other versatile environments. It was used by the bacteria to sense any foreign gene sequence and help in its elimination. Like protect it against bacteriophages. Now it's wider use include utilising it to remove genes or even add (or if aptly put edit) them. Basically biologists and genetic engineers have turned a natural bacterial antiviral into the biggest gig of the year or even the century probably. This is evident from the very fact that the people who got Nobel Prize in Biology this year were all CRISPR researchers. Such a complete domination of one topic among the winners has only been seen before in 2002 for genome sequencing.
Right now CRISPR looks the most significant topic of research in biology. With proper implementation it can be used on humans after being tested on other mammals. The testing has already been done on mice and even initial experiments on humans have been done but nothing further. CRISPR can be used to totally eliminate gene based diseases such as sickle cell anaemia. Other syndromes like Downs can finally be cured. It can also be used to throw in new traits in humans. And lets not even talk about the unreal effects it can have on livestock and farming. These professions would change forever. Animal products yield could be easily quadrupled. Death of monetarily profitable species of cattle can be used to endow their favoured features in the next generation. Many plants would become more beautiful. (But really it depends on your definition of beautiful. If you find the colours and vibrancy of a petal as beauty in itself then you might be happy. But if it you find the simplistic yet complex patterns of colour on petal beautiful then you might be saddened).CRISPR can be used in coordination with other genetic engineering techniques as well. Currently one of its major use include along with STEM cell method. It can revolutionise the field of genetics as gene editing will be easier and more possible.

Jennifer Doudna is the pioneer researcher on CRISPR

With CRISPR in our hand, humans can officially sit in the driving seat of evolution cycle. This technology would help scientists place genes or remove them as per requirement. To understand more about this, we need to reinstate how evolution works. Evolution is the change in characteristics of an organism for the purpose of adapting itself better to the environment. It takes centuries. Many primary features we know of today have been a product of evolution like seeds, leaves and wings. Though religiously contradicted but it is probably well known that mammals and even humans themselves are product of evolution of prokaryotes. But lets keep that discussion for some other time. Anyway, by CRISPR scientists can now remove genes which make them prone to perils in the environment. Instead these can then be replaced by genes which will be transcribed into proteins favourable for the organisms growth. This might save a lot of species of organisms from extinction in future when the biosphere becomes more polluted.

The people gradation by Huxley

Perhaps the most significant and mind boggling achievement of CRISPR would be to make Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a reality. Brave New World is a dystopian novel and definitely one of my favourites. Apart from other gigantic leaps humans will make in the future, it talks about how humans would be mass produced. The novel talks about humans being produced according to the work or profession they will do once they grow up. Their characteristics are determined by the genes in them of course which are controlled by a machine. The gene sequence at each echelon is kept constant. Suppose, an alpha baby is the son of a Cabinet Minister and will have a gene set to code for proteins that will help him live his luxurious life even more easily. Beta baby might grow up to become a creative person. A painter. And the gamma child has strong physical strength for he has to do the labour when he grows up. Now imagine if the creation of this concept could be brought to implementation in reality by CRISPR. It doesn't seem too remote and distant, does it? The technology of CRISPR is capable of performing these feats if the resources are abundant and the techniques are accurate.

But that's not the only problem. We should not forget that CRISPR is itself a biological entity. Like everything in nature it is not bound by human rules. We can tame it and harness its powers but we can't control it forever. There is a one in a million chance that CRISPR might trigger an evolution surge among a normal human being. Generally as aforementioned evolution takes centuries and many generations but what if it were to happen after every generation. Surely it looks profiting but when you observe its not. Its basically equivalent of inducing so many morphological and physiological changes in the body that it cannot handle more. Its like choking on sweet honey poison. It looks and smells good but the experience is not pleasant. This makes CRISPR look like a Bio-weapon that can be used. Newsflash, it can be exploited as a Bio-weapon too. Its immense ability to change genes and complete human features is radical and not irrelevant to the concept of warfare. Fear not though. Even before CRISPR has been fully operational and in 100% go mode, we already have an Anti-CRISPR treatment. Its full functioning honestly goes beyond my scope of understanding but what I can infer from all the bold and technical words is that it inhibits the gene sequence from being changed rapidly and frequently.

"With genetic engineering we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA and improve the human race."

Next, like all mind-blowing discoveries and inventions, using CRISPR is no box of chocolates (or strawberries, whatever you like). It requires plethora of money, time and...lab rats. Yes, accidents may occur. Moving on, it is no wonder that you need an abundant amount of laboratory equipment and chemicals etc. A state of the art lab is needed too and of course everything should be top notch and modern. I mean, come to think of it, identifying genes is more difficult than stopping Houdini from escaping. So it's only natural that editing them so precariously would be no easy but cracking job. Lastly to target a specified gene too is a cumbersome task and leaves no room for error.

Like every other discovery that challenges human brain, CRISPR also has its fair share of opposition arriving from a decent source: morality. I ask you, would your morality allow the changing of characteristics of a child that hasn't been born yet. Its almost like messing with nature. And is bound to have setbacks and consequences. Moreover human sense is defied by everything that CRISPR can do. Human morals therefore do not allow tampering with the pure and true essence that nature has bestowed. Genetically engineered plants and animals faced so much opposition from people and NGOs on the basis of morality that their true potential was never unlocked in human body. So there's that shadowing the fact that CRISPR experiment on a human that might be considered significant has still not been performed.

Hey, did I mention that Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, half of the Silicon Valley and most of the giant conglomerates of this era sponsor CRISPR research? No?

Bill Gates, we all know who he is.

Oh well I just said it anyway. And it does add a little credibility into the whole concept of CRISPR when these guys finance it. Moreover Silicon Valley is considered the genius haven today and if people from there think that CRISPR is the future and are entrusting it with their money then it's definitely something worth checking out. Still lets not forget that even those guys are human and make mistakes. Also initially only the cas9 enzyme could be used with CRISPR but now casX and casY have been found compatible too. Work to find more enzymes is being carried out as this would assist in editing a greater section of the complete gene pool. Right now though CRISPR's research has come to somewhat of a stalemate owing to the lawsuit battle between two universities, each claiming their right to patent it. For obvious reasons. Both intend to make a mother-lode of money out of it. Fingers crossed because every time money dominates over science, then science gets to pay the price in the form of a compromise. We have the evergreen example of the lawsuit battles between Edison and Tesla. In fact Teslas whole life is a perfect example of why science should be preferred over money. Therefore yeah its current status is seeing a bit of a downfall. Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon.

The demarcation of this debriefing post is to show the different doors that CRISPR is capable of opening whilst weighing in various factors such as limitations and demerits. All of this is just assumptions based on scientific deductions. This is far from close. There are still many impracticalities to be accounted for. This is all based on 'ifs' and 'suppose'. However CRISPR has a big chance to change everything. And once it does, we'll all have to face a Brave New World.

Brief Description of its working

Checkmate

"The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of life, the more clear we should see through it"

“Checkmate!” 

The anguished cry arose from the lonely cabin in the woods followed by a gunshot. The woods returned into their perpetual state of rest. But the cabin was suddenly abuzz with activity.

“Daddy, what was that?”

“I think that was the two men blowing each other's brains out, son.”

Two pale figures emerged into the larger room of the cabin. The boy was slightly older than 5. He was weirdly adorable with large beautiful eyes that he had evidently inherited from his father, who too had dark and deep eyes.The boy's father had a rugged and rough face. The little boy clung to his fathers trousers as they cautiously approached the two figures lying still facedown on the floor of the cabin. 

“Daddy what happened to them?”

The boy's father moved closer to one of the bodies and he heard a faint groaning. The father touched the persons chest and he immediately died.

“Oh the poor soul! If only we had reached earlier.” The father exclaimed.

The boy who was now at the edge of his patience started whining. “Daddy daddy tell me what is it?”

“Calm yourself son. Come sit on that chair. Let me tell you a story.” 

“Oh really! What kind of story, Dad? Is it a horror or a thriller?”

His father chuckled. “I’ll let you be the judge of that. Anyway, one day…

•••••

Huber shook hands with Phillip.

They both were smiling as they took their seats and it didn't require a keen eye to observe that it was a plastic smile. They had a cold attitude to each other. Colder than a glass of martini the waiter brought presently.

“Phillip.”

“Huber.”

“How many times do I need to say that I want to buy Galaxy.com?”

Phillip gritted his teeth. Knelt forward with his elbows on the table and nearly spat on Huber’s face.

“I already had a deal when you barged in with that ugly mug of yours.”

Huber’s face tensed and his expressions transformed from that of annoyance to utter hostility. He spoke in a slow, menacing tone:

“You had a deal you say? Really? You see. I find this very amusing. I find coincidences very-“ Huber looked at Phillip who was grimly looking at the empty plate the waiter had just set in front of him. Then, in an attempt to get his attention, dramatically spread his arms to show magnificence.

“Very fantastic. One day, my company makes headlines with a press statement that we are interested in buying Galaxy.com to spread our sales to the online market. Next thing I know, your stupid company swoops in and makes a deal.”

Phillip who had been listening attentively looked straight in Huber’s eyes and stated plainly but resolutely: “We had a contract before you made that statement.”

Huber's nostrils expanded in disgust as he barked while slamming his fist on the table creating a rattling noise of the cutlery. 

“You lie!”

Phillip reclined backwards, crossed his arms against his chest and said with feigning curiosity 

“Oh. And what proof do you have of that?”

That did it for Huber who was about to make a scene out of it but decided against it. Huber left the restaurant huffing and puffing: dragging his gigantic stature outside. Phillip sat quietly for some time. The silence was punctured by the waiters meek cough. It almost sounded like a mouse throwing up. 

“Sir do you still want the pork-chops to be served?” 

Phillip curtly replied in negative and exited the restaurant, effortlessly swaying his lean figure.

A week later, the two men met at the same place at the same time.

“What in the name of Neptune’s Balls do you want Phillip? I am not dropping that lawsuit against you.”

“I am not asking you to do that.”

“Then what?”

Phillip toyed with the cutlery and then sharply replied:

“I want a game of chess.”

Huber who had almost given up the hope of finding any glimmer of comedy between their interactions, laughed heartily now. Phillip remained unmoved.

“For old times sake, Huber.”

Huber controlled his earth trembling laughter but a smile retained on his face. 

“Phillip! Oh my good old friend Phillip! Why do you want to play chess with me? Out of all the other people you chose me!”

Phillip was about to reply but Huber signalled him to say he wasn't finished roasting him yet.

“Now! I am flattered. Really flattered but I know you since kindergarten. I know you before you didn't like the colour black. I know you before you became what you are now! Time and again you have ensnared me in your wonderfully contracted traps. And if there's anything life has taught me, it's that never fall for the same trap again.”

Huber then smiled broader and said rather plainly. 

“So tell me my friend. What's the catch?”

Phillip smiled.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever ask that, Huber.”

Huber silently with a certain nonchalance drunk the remnant of the cocktail in the glass.

“Huber.”

“Phillip.” Huber was now looking at him straight in the eye.

“What I am going to say now might startle you at first but don't be impulsive. Think about what I have said. I’ll let you sleep on it.”

Huber shrugged “Ok.”

“These past few days I have been really bored. Putting it roughly I’d say bored out of my wits. Yes, don't look at me like that. The lawsuits, the business rivalries, the fluctuating stock market are all ironically monotonous and the same. I mean be honest with yourself and tell me our petty little duels are they even worth the fight? Do you really think Galaxy.com will be the biggest gig of the century? Are you really that into starting a fast food chain or do you just want to prod me? Poke me to wake me from my slumber? So that we can fight and quarrel. Its not worth it. We both know if we wanted we could end it anytime anywhere. But we don't because it’s the only thing that entertains us. So I was thinking we could play a game of chess by twisting and modifying some rules. How about-“ Phillip swallowed, looked at Huber who was intently gazing outside the window but Phillip knew he had his attention.

“What if every time you take off my pawn from the board, you take away a pawn from my life…”

Huber’s eyes widened. 

“Imagine the thrill you’d get. Its almost like betting your life on a game. It would be so real and we would put all our resources to attain victory. Wait I see a question in your mind. What is it?”

Huber voice trembled when he spoke: “And what if your knight check mates my king?”

Phillip smiled and spoke coolly “I thought I was fairly clear about that my friend.”

For some minutes they ate and drank in silence. Huber was morose but Phillip was relatively cheerful. As Phillip swallowed the last piece of meat he asked Huber while wiping his mouth with a handkerchief: “What do you think then? Are you in for a game?”

Something inside Huber was tearing apart. It was screaming and shouting. It was shrieking loudly that this was wrong. This was against everything he had ever believed in. It was his conscience and Hubert instinctively knew what he wanted.

“Yes. Lets do it.”

"We make choices. No one else can live our lives for us. And we must confront and accept the consequences of our actions."

•••

Two days later, Rahul Malhotra left his office building and flirtatiously looked at the woman entering the cab in front of him. His vanity got the better half of his consciousness as he tripped and fell down the stairs, fracturing his head in the process. He died on spot with a little hole bored through his skull. There was no need for a post-mortem of course. It was clear that Rahul had fell and unluckily a piece of gravel or stone had hit him on the head. The deceased’s family soon arranged a funeral according to their Hindu Traditions which was attended by many people from Huber Co. since he held an influential position there. Huber himself stood solemnly while the customs were carried out. He looked even more hurt than the widow. As soon as the crowd began to disperse, Huber rushed into his black Lamborghini and ordered his driver to drop him off at the edge of a particular forest. He had a secretive meeting in a desolate cabin. 

“I didn't expect to see you here today, Huber.”

“We swore on our Boy Scouts oath to meet here and make our chess moves.”

Philip chuckled and lit his cigar.

“Never knew you were such a loyal Scout.” 

Huber who had hung up his coat sat on the armchair. The chess set lay in front of him. Most of the pieces were still unmoved. Basically only the pawns had been moved. The chess set was short of one pawn.

“I have to admit though, Huber.” Philip paused and  looked intently at Huber.

“…finding the appropriate pawn to eliminate was a bit complicated.”

Huber was playing with his fingers and nodded. The silence between them prevailed for sometime until Huber looked straight ahead. His eyes were misty. He was crying and his voice trembled when he spoke.

“You are a murderer…”

Philip felt embarrassed and hurt. He didn't conceal his feelings.

“But Huber you agreed to this! Don't make me the bad guy here!”

“You killed Rahul, widowed his wife and rendered his children fatherless just for a game of chess.”

Philip couldn't keep the bitterness of accusation escape from his voice as he spoke now.

“Huber! What rubbish are you saying? I didn't kill Rahul. I paid for him to be shot without fuss with your permission. His wife will probably marry again very soon. We both know that and his children are the biggest scoundrels-“

“Stop Philip!”

Philip was panting. Huber stood up from the chair and walked towards the door. Before exiting he turned.

“Philip, you are right. I signed up for this and I gave you permission. I am sorry for accusing you of something you didn't do. But I came here to make another point. There are 8 pawns. I cant let you remove 8 pawns from my life. Can we please modify the rules so that…”

“So that what?” Philip sharply asked

“2 pawns would be worth one pawn in my life.”

Philip mused over it for a second and then nodded. Before he could say anything else, Huber took his coat and opened the door of the cabin to leave. Just before he left he shouted out to Philip to move the pawn in front of his Queen two blocks ahead.

•••

A couple of months later, Huber and Philip met again. Not in the cabin behind the woods but at a café in an industrious part of the city. Huber was hiring new employees in a frenzy. The analysts were strongly condemning this quickness because Huber just had valuable documents regarding his company assets stolen. An unfiltered employing process might result in the hiring of people who weren't trustworthy. Philip on the other hand was perfectly alright. His company was faring well except a couple of his employees had gone AWOL.

“How's it going Huber my friend?”

Huber smiled and drank his tea quietly while Philip stirred the spoon inside his coffee idly.

“Huber”

“Philip”

“You have something up your sleeve, no?”

“Philip my bloody friend you are absolutely right.”

Philip blinked nervously.

“Is it about that?”

Huber put the cup on the saucer with a clink and leaned forward.

“Since you are being so inquisitive, let me tell you that tomorrow when I have made my move and you have made yours, you will be 1 Bishop short.”

Philip swallowed and let out a deep sigh.

“You are too overconfident. You just gave yourself away.” His voice was full of self doubt. He knew what Huber was saying. He could see the chess board in his mind. His bishop surrounded by his own pawns except one opening where it couldn't step. But where Huber’s Rook could step on. He desperately rattled his mind for a way out of it but failed. Since Huber never replied Philip added

“And even if you can eliminate my Bishop, it will still be some days before you figure out who it really is.”

“Yes. You are right Philip. I don't have the foggiest notion who it is.” Huber was still smiling and Philip knew that Huber knew who it was. 

Philip rushed through the rest of the hi-tea. Despite being calculating and stoic, he never thought he would see this moment and feel such an intense effect. He panicked and felt helpless. There was nothing he could do. Nothing. Except maybe go and visit him. And that is exactly what Philip did. He asked his driver to stop at Downtown. He knew the area well. He was well aware of all the dark alleys and corners. He had lived here after all and as he entered 32A, Philip disgusted at himself.

“Ah! Philip my son!”

“Morning Master!” Philip bowed.

“No need for such formalities.”

Philip entered the room where the Sensei was sitting.

“I deem it ridiculous and disrespectful to address you with your name. Not that I know your name.”

The sensei chortled

“Tea?”

“You know I wont and can't deny.”

“Of course you can if you want to.”

Philip sat on the floor just a few feet away from Sensei. The Sensei precariously took up the act of making herbal tea as if it was a matter requiring utmost delicacy. He handled the leaves like they were fragile things and a rough touch might be just enough to destroy them.

“Something troubling you Philip?”

Philip didn't hesitate in shaking his head to which the Sensei replied by raising his eyebrow. Philip sighed and smiled.

“It is really nothing.”

Sensei nodded and handed the tea cup to Philip who silently started drinking it. The Sensei walked towards the potted bonsai plants near the window.

“Death is merely a transition.” Philips cup made an unsettling noise on the saucer but the Sensei didn't turn and continued caressing the leaves of the little plants.

“Nobody can escape death. It is an inevitable truth. We must all get accustomed to this fact. We, humans call ourselves mighty and powerful but we can't do so much as predict the time, method or even the date of anyone's death.” He then rotated and looked at Philip right in his pale face.

“Son, I don't know what or how but you have bartered my life. I do not wish to postpone my death. No! I have lived and seen far too much already. I wish to be at peace now but heed my words! What you have done will never let you sleep in peace! You cannot treat someone’s life even if that someone is you, as a trading property!”

Philip remained silent and suddenly chuckled.

“Sensei, why you are deluded, I am afraid! I have done nothing of that sort! If you wonder on the reason for my sudden arrival well it was only because I wanted to see you. I believe that you need to rest now. Maybe I should leave. I’ll just show myself out.”

As Philip hastened to leave without finishing his tea, a grimaced stern expression persisted on the Sensei’s aged face. His brows were tensed and the lines on his forehead were thicker than ever. After all it wouldn't take a magus to figure that Philip had sinned. An inexcusable sin

And the inevitable did happen. In fact, it continued to happen as knights and rooks fell from the chessboard. Philip and Huber mourned their losses as they saw their brothers and families die in their very hands. They knew the exact time when their brother was going to be killed, but they couldn't do anything about it. They had given each other their word and an honourable man keeps his word. 

Maybe it will be far more justified if said that Huber and Philip had trodden down to the path from where they couldn't be exorcised. They had turned into demons. There thoughts had gone static and their ability to feel had pretty much gone away. They were numb robots, dealing in the lives of their loved ones, whose demise they saw to with an unwavering attention. For them the human life was now merely another item. But they had forgotten that a fire lit can hurt the hand that lit it. They had forgotten the penultimate and the most important clause of their deal. They had deliberately in fact pretended to ignore that they were the king. And one day what they feared the most happened.

Philip had Huber on a checkmate. Philip had already told Huber to arrange a coffin for himself a day before. Huber had come ready. It was quite a queer feeling to be invited to one’s own death ceremony. Philip had also come prepared. He was oiling his pistol when Huber walked in all fluffy and pumped up. Philip didn't want to carry it on any longer. Their game of chess had already lasted for 2 years. They had seen people depart and Philip had decided to see this era in the future as a preparation and a character building activity. 

Philip raised his gun.

Huber walked right in front of it. It was quite daring.

Philip cocked his gun.

Huber smiled. Closed his eyes and said the final prayer.

Philip smiled.

“Huber I want you to know that this has been absolutely lovely.”

“Yeah you are right but I wish-“

“No time for sentimental farewells. Checkmate! ”

There was a gun shot. And it is crystal clear who died.

But this is not where the story ends. The two people who had been secretly watching all this drama unfold into this climax for the past 2 years now looked at Philip with greater interest. Philip smiled. Maybe a tear formed in his eyes but it never reached the horizon of his cheeks. Philip decided to arrange the chess pieces back in the proper order and as he bent to pick them up, he got stupefied.

It was a stalemate. Not a checkmate. Hubert had died for nothing. They had had to restart the game not end it. How could they miss it? As Philip grabbed his head and fell on his knees crying, only one thought occurred to him: Hubert didn't lose. As the pain and sudden despair set in with guilt, Philip saw his gun and without hesitation set it inside his mouth. There was nothing left to live. He had let himself down. And a muffled gunshot was the end of Philip. The world had been changed as two multimillionaires died. There had already been speculation about the deaths of their closed ones, this climax and anti-climax would probably be good content for history books.

•••••

“Is that it, Daddy?” The little kid half asleep on his Dad’s lap asked

“Yes that's it. I mean you already know the back stage things.” The father heartily chuckled. The chuckle was cold and had a certain hollowness.

The boy didn't reply but nodded.

“It was really clever of you, son, to tamper with the arrangement of pieces. I see that you are learning.” 

The boy who was half asleep suddenly woke up and cheerily shouted “Thanks dad!” His words echoing in the empty cabin and the forest.

“Yeah. Though I wonder why he never thought that it might have been moved or something. He was stupid. I mean humans tend to be stupid. Besides they are easy to manipulate. It literally took me 1 hour to convince that poor old bastard that a chess game would give him the purpose of his life! Oh! And look it only took a weakling such as you my son to make him kill himself!”

The kid listened with awe but suddenly a frown fell over his radiant face which had grown paler.

“Dad!” He whined “I don't like it! Do you mean to say we are not humans?”

The father paused and replied: “I’ll let you figure that out. If I recollect properly though, that was about 500 years ago. Anyway we have to set the cabin and woods again. The fog is vanishing and the chess pieces won't arrange themselves again.”

"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception."

*************

All pictures have been taken from Google.

Reality, Destiny and some philosophy

While I sat looking at the lecture on quantum mechanics which preceded the lecture about Einsteins theory about gravitation, I realised the inevitable. It was high time for me to dig into the uber nerd stuff and research quantum mechanics. What started as a random idea to fulfil curiosity ended up in me questioning reality.
Obviously I didnt go into the hardcore mathematics stuff as that would have been like gibberish to me but I did get the gust of the whole idea. So heres the thing. Heisenberg wanted to define atom and quite literally had a crazy fit one night. That night the quantum mechanics was born. For quantum mechanics to work, however, two of the one thing had to be considered wrong:
1) Distant events do not effect each other
2) Properties we wish to observe exist before measurement.
It was a question to choose between locality and reality. The former meant that everything was interconnected in a space-time continuum which would have fit snugly with Einsteins 4th dimension idea. The latter meant that lets say if your shirt’s color is blue then its because you see it blue and everybody else sees it as blue. Its weird I know but thats what the maths pointed out. One of them had to go.
Enters Schrodinger, with his infamous cat. In an attempt to describe an orbital, Schrodinger came up with a wave equation. It is used to identify characters of a particle in the space time continuum. According to the wave equation, every object is in a state of quantum superposition. Putting it in layman words, every object’s fate is branched and at any given moment of time it can adopt any of the next branch. Its like calculating probabilities. To help understand his own equation, Schrodinger invented a thought process. The cat. Lets say the cat is inside a box with a lethal radioactive substance which is emitted once the box is closed. As soon as the box is closed the radioactive material is released. The question is, whether the cat is dead or alive OR is the cat dead and alive right now…and the true value can only be known when we open the box.
All of this lead to Heisenberg coming up with his Uncertainty Principle in which he says that measuring the momentum and position of an electron at the same time is impossible. Fair enough. Anyway, right about this time, the scientists started ganging up. Heisenberg and Niels Bohr endorsed the quantum mechanics and firmly believed that reality had to be abandoned. They said that everything is in superposition and appears the way we want it to be.
You might be saying “What the hell?” How can the whole world see the world in a way it actually is not…The reason we see our world as we do is because of what we use to observe. Human body is just an adequate measuring device. We all create a classical world around us. There could be other classical worlds different from ours.
Did I hear you say the world Multiverse? Well somebody else that time thought so too. It was Mr Everett who came up with the Many World Interpretation, generally called the MWI. Everett added nothing new to the quantum mechanics, rather he removed the restriction of abandoning locality or reality. It tells us that the universes are both determined and undetermined. It is in a superposition and the universe itself is a wave function. It means that all possible outcomes of an event are being played in different copies of our universe in a determined fashion. It happens by our universe going through decoherence and forming a new universe. Decoherence is the fastest process ever in the universe. It means the instantaneous splitting of some superposition elements to form altogether a new reality. This is basically the concept of multi-verse idea. However this theory has been easily proved false many times. I would just state two basic reasons. One is that according to the de cloning theory, no matter or wave can be cloned this way and hence the cloning of a wave function viz a universe to form a reality is impossible. Similarly, the idea of one universe somehow giving brith to new universes pulverises the law of conservation of energy, without which almost all of present day physics is rendered useless.
Moving back to our topic of reality and locality. Einstein, being a classical scientist openly refuted the idea that reality had to be abandoned for quantum mechanics to work. I would like to quote him here:
“Do you really think the moon only exists when you look at it?”
“God does not play dice.”
This is where things get interesting. Since the physical background is now clear, let us move to the bigger and higher question. The philosophical question.
Research has clearly shown one thing. Reality has to be abandoned for quantum mechanics to work. It wont work any other way. Experiments like the teleportation of charges on photons and teleporting of light to name a few have patronised this point. So lets come to the philosophy.
Does this mean that everything that exists has a value? It means that the universe is determined. Everything already had a value. Every variable has a solution and it is written. I mean its comforting and discomforting at the same time. This also means that distant objects do not influence each other’s end result.
Lets put it more err lamely. Our destiny is written. It’s fixed. Whatever has to be done will be done. And two contrary and unrelated objects/sprites cannot alter each others fate by their own mere actions. But then again, isnt that what Islam says. Islam says that whatever has to happen at any time in future is already written and fixed. It says that the fate of every being on earth is determined. What does this mean? Clearly, it is an open proof that Allah is All Knower and that any claim that Holy Quran is false is baseless. How can a book revealed in 610AD say what was proved more than 1300 years later? Oh! It can say it after all its the Scripture of the Most Knowledgeable and the All Knower.
However even some Muslims wonder that if everything is fixed, what use is praying and restraining from sins if the end is inevitable. I am no scholar. Not even close. But I quote Paulo Coelho here: “If you desire truly, the whole universe conspires for you to get it.” Point being, who says you cant re-write destiny? Work hard, pray intensely and maybe you can do the impossible. Lastly in regards to this, Allah knows the best. Whatever He does, there is some reason behind it. Maybe the deeper secrets and the ultimate truth about universe and reality are secrets that Allah has kept covert from humans for the right time is not nigh.
We deviated a lot didnt we? I wrote all of this to prove one big fat point. The reality we know might not just exist. We might be holograms. We might be a virtual simulation. We might be viewing the world from a very narrow point of view causing us all humans to see the typical world we live in. Truth be spoken, I dont think we are going to find the answers to these questions anytime. Some questions are better left unanswered.

Weirdness

Weirdness lies in all of us. We are all uniquely flawed. We are all weird and have our very own unique set of characteristics that seldom resemble anybody else. This is what makes us all unique. This is what makes us all special. Ironic as this may seem but most of the people do not value this ‘special-ness’ the same way. Occasionally it is in fact termed as weirdness, which is theoretically very wrong.

What is weirdness? A guy with a crazy hair-cut? A dude who is very awkward and clever at the same time? A boy who is not a socialite and has creepy habits? If these and their correspondences do not define weirdness, I don’t know what does. Interestingly if one observes, all this features also distinguish the personality from the crowd, making him/her special. Usually when we meet someone new, we tend to remember them with one specific characteristic that they have which keeps them apart from the others in our memory bank. That characteristic ranges from a unique name to a unique dressing code. Mind it that I say unique and not weird, crazy or awkward. Hence it is safe to imply that weird people tend to end up more in our memory banks and influence us more. There is another element to this. Weird people lead interesting lives. But hold on, by weird I specifically mean people who have weirdness in abundance. It’s a quality. Believe me. So a weird person does everything weirdly, that’s because he is weird.

On further thinking, we can reluctantly imply this phenomenon to an interesting field. Popularity is a very desired abstract material. A popular person can be very influential. There’s no need to dig deep for the evidence of this as it is quiet inevitable how famous celebrities shape the future fashion. So, the point under consideration here is that are all popular people weird? Is that what makes them special besides their skills? And then the ultimate question: Is weirdness the key to success?

Popular people are weird; this is an interesting statement. Firstly, however there exist all sorts of popular people. From scientists, artists, celebrities to athletes, sportsmen and academicians. Crazy scientist: a well-known term, used to define some scientists, or rather I should say; used to define every great scientist. I mean come on, if Einstein had hairs like me nobody would have been able to distinguish him, but his ‘bomb-astic’ [no pun intended (sarcasm intended though) ] hair simply make him, weirder. Artists have a knack of being weird, doesn’t that make their paintings better. Most of the classic paintings have literally no meaning to a common man like me. Mona Lisa, to me is just a weird woman. Celebrities tend to be even more weirder than they show themselves to be. Honestly answer this question: don’t you think it’s weird, the way artists switch characters, from deadly serious ones to extremely funny ones. Sir Ian McKellen himself playing Magneto, Gandalf and a 90-year Holmes seems so absurd. I mean this shows the diverse nature of the actor making him one of the best actors…and also weirder. Next, it’s a tad difficult proving how sportsmen can be weird. Some aspects I can think of are their playing styles. A cricketer who ‘invents’ a new shot or a new ball suddenly becomes world famous. Usually that new shot or ball seems weird and unearthly. Really really seriously though now that I come to think of it, sportsmen tend to be less weird. But are sportsmen even successful? That can be sorted some other time, but if you can think of some evidence put it in the comments.

Now, is weirdness the ultimate key to success. Nope. After all my arguments and propositions, I would still venture to state that weirdness is not success by any means. Weirdness is simply a quality. It is not a spot, not something to be ashamed of. It is if utilized and used appropriately a weapon to be influential and cast a longer effect on the other person’s mind.

The purpose of all this blabber is to indoctrinate the idea that weirdness which is actually a good thing to have, but is unfortunately presumed to be a bad thing, should not be concealed. We must all appear as we are. Sometimes our perspective of an object is not enough to determine its status globally. It takes a sound mind and reasoning to know where to put what. I would reinstate the already said words in simpler language that we are all humans. We have weaknesses and strengths. Concealing our weaknesses our flaws just to pretend we are perfect, is simply irrational and sheer foolishness. We are humans, we are supposed to make mistakes. How do you suppose to learn without making mistakes? Every fall has a lesson. Without any fall there won’t be any lesson. So bring out and show the world your true self. Don’t be shy. Initially it may seem whacky but in the end it will all turn out to be cool. After all humans are supposed to humans; full of flaws and yet the best of the beings.