When I was about 15, oh so long ago now, I had this crazy hobby of book binding, which is like the process of turning a paperback into a hardcover, or adding a hardcover to an exercise book. With the mild OCD that I have, I do get a bit carried away with such things, and no books around me or in my dad’s collection were spared. I collaborated with a local printing press to access their cutting machine and local stationery stores to research on various techniques and acquire supplies. My crowning moment was when I did a “full-calico” binding on a rather useless book that my dad had recently purchased.
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Category Archives: Topical
Includes posts on physics, philosophy, sciences, quantitative finance, economics, environment etc.
Life and Chess: Who’s playing?
All chess games have three stages: the opening, the mid-game and the endgame. And a chess game is a reasonably good metaphor for life.
When Your Child is as Big as You
My mom used to say that when your child is as big as you, you have to treat them with respect. What she actually said was that you had to address them using a respectful form of “you,” which doesn’t make any sense in English, but may work in Hindi or French. It worked poetically well in Malayalam. I was reminded of this maternal pearl of wisdom recently when I was watching a movie with my son.
Contradictions
Life is full of contradictions.
I am attending a research retreat on mindfulness and contemplative practices at the beautiful Garrison Institute. I am learning a lot of interesting things, and meeting a lot of like-minded and excellent people – the kind of people with whom I could have deep conversation about the unreal nature of reality, unlike most people from other walks of life would politely and tactfully excuse themselves when I get a bit unreal.
Twilight Years
At some point in our life, we come to accept the fact we are closer to death than life. What lies ahead is definitely less significant than what is left behind. These are the twilight years, and I have come to accept them. With darkness descending over the horizons, and the long shadows of misspent years and evaded human conditions slithering all around me, I peer into the void, into an eternity of silence and dreamlessness. It is almost time.
Recap of Modern Physics
Since the post series on Particles and Interactions became a bit longer than I wanted, I thought I would break it up. Let’s start with a recap of modern physics that will you will need to understand the structure of matter.
Top Philosophy Blog – Again!
Unreal Blog recently got another award as one of the top 100 philosophy blogs.
The previous such award came a few years ago. Glad to feel appreciated for my efforts and to see that people are taking notice.
Interpretation of Special Relativity
When we looked at Quantum Mechanics, we talked about its various interpretations. The reason we have such interpretations, I said, is that QM deals with a reality that we have no access to, through our sensory and perceptual apparatuses. On the other hand, Special Relativity is about macro objects in motion, and we have no problem imagining such things. So why would we need to have an interpretation? The answer is a subtle one.
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Speed of Light
The speed of light being a constant sounds like a simple statement. But there is more to it, quite a bit more. Let’s look at what this constancy really means. At first glance, it says that if you are standing somewhere, and there is a ray of light going from your right to left, it has a speed c. And another ray of light going from left to right also has a speed c. So far, so good. Now let’s say you are in a rocket ship, as shown in the figure below, moving from right to left.
Special Theory of Relativity
When we hear about Einstein and the special relativity (or the special theory of relativity, to use the real name), we think of the famous 
equation, and weird things like the twin paradox. While those things are all true and important, the problem SR tries to solve is a completely different one. It is an attempt to defend a basic principle in physics.
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