seemingly intellectual stuff

I saw the Ship of Theseus last week or so. It was quite a brilliant movie. It had an excellent script. The Ship of Theseus. The Wikipedia explains the though experiment as thus:

This particular version of the paradox was first introduced in Greek legend as reported by the historian, biographer, and essayist Plutarch,

"The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, in so much that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same."

Plutarch thus questions whether the ship would remain the same if it were entirely replaced, piece by piece. Centuries later, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes introduced a further puzzle, wondering what would happen if the original planks were gathered up after they were replaced, and used to build a second ship. Hobbes asked which ship, if either, would be considered the original Ship of Theseus.

Another early variation involves a scenario in which Socrates and Plato exchange the parts of their carriages one by one until, finally, Socrates's carriage is made up of all the parts of Plato's original carriage and vice versa. The question is presented if or when they exchanged their carriages.

It’s quite an interesting question. Something as simple as this leaves people to debate and sit on either side. Sometimes it’s easier to be an Apatheist and say FU. Does the question really matter? I put this thought to Jispa and she says the ship is basically different. It’s a different ship altogether. I think she sees it differently from me. I think the ship is the same. It’s not different.

Now this is making me think. I think I will talk to Jispa again in the evening about it. For me it’s the soul of the ship in its essence that makes the ship. The parts are just that – parts, not the soul. In this case the answer lies with the crew. What the crew believes to be their ship is their ship. To continue the thought experiment with another variation – if 50% of the parts of both the ships are from the old ship, which of the ships is the original ship – it’s where the soul resides. In ship the soul is where the crew resides and believes that it is the ship. But hell...  forget it. Let me see what comes of the conversation with Jispa.

The movie itself is quite interesting – it showcases the story of three individuals who have been affected by a medical transplant. One by option – who goes through soul searching after a transplant. One by reluctance – who goes through a soul search before a transplant and one by force - you screws the soul and faces reality after the transplant. It’s a very interesting take on three angles. Nice work on the story. The best part about the movie is the nice conversation they show in the second story. Here a monk (possibly jain but never explicitly mentioned) has conversations on philosophy with another younger person (not his devotee or religion). A pragmatist versus a spiritualist. I think a whole lot of thought has gone into writing the script and the result is an intelligent conversation. I liked it. it is the best conversation I would have seen in a movie about beliefs and the challenges thereon.
Just for kicks - here is the deleted scene from the main movie - so its not a spoiler :)


 Good script followed by some good acting and some really nice signature wide angle shots. Watch it. Nice movie. The best part – the camera follows the characters in long single shots, even as they move around. It’s like a theatre play or something.

 Bonus song from film with wordings

joker ya teacher?

Jispa’s results are releasing. She is scoring decently well. Except for the languages she seems to be in the As. So I guess the strategy is working fine. More regular work and less pressure studies. More discussion through the year and less mugging; that’s the only way to go forward from here I think. Now I have to sort the language mess. I can possibly get her to do better in English but I don’t think I can be too much of a help in Hindi. I hate that subject.

It’s a shame that Hindi which is what the maximum people in India speak is a language so alien to us. While we were growing up it was clear – you must speak English. English is the way to a good job, great pay and decent career. It’s true as well. If you don’t know your English you surely will be judged and sniggered at behind your back. People put a lot of emphasis on the grammar and the spellings and the punctuations. But seriously – I am ashamed that I don’t know Hindi as well. In fact I can’t even read Jispa’s text book at a decent speed. Bah! But hopefully I will try and get there.

So now every day I sit with Jispa and ask her – what she did in school, which are the subjects taught and which topics were discussed. In the last sem she had the Egyptian and the Harrappan civilization. In explaining that I also explained how a recent book I read spoke about debunking the Aryan invasion nd said that possibly the Rig Vedas were written by the Harappan themselves while on the banks of the Saraswati. This helped her this week as the topic they discussed next was the Aryan civilization. She also countered / spoke up in class while the discussions were on. That’s nice.

All the subjects that are taught in school are interesting by themselves. There is so much magic in history, geography, math, science etc. So much fun inside to know what all is happening. It’s up to the teacher to make it come alive, to make it magical for the students. If the teacher is dry then the subject becomes dry. It’s so important to entertain your students. At first the concept that I had was the old traditional concept, that’s it’s the student’s job to study and soak from the teacher. The teacher’s job is simply to be earnest. But the reverse is actually true. It’s the teacher’s job to ensure that the students learn. Hence to learn the teacher has to be a joker. It is his primary job to entertain. Everyone these days is sued to all time always on entertainment. If you are bored, all you have to do is remove your phone and start playing, browsing or listen to music and shut off the world. As a teacher or a presenter in a conference, the challenge is serious. You have to first entertain then educate. You have to be Patch Adams - “You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you'll win, no matter what the outcome”. You don’t teach the subject, you teach the person!

I hope that Jispa’s looks back on these days with a bit of fun. I want her to feel that studying was fun with dad. I hope I bring a certain joy for her subjects, no matter how dry they seem. So I keep trying to explain to her, how exciting each subject is and how they help us in our lives. History is also exciting and so are museums. Geaography is exciting and so are the mountains. Math is a part of our daily life and modern science benefits are there to see in our lifestyle. Its amazing. School Curriculum is not the issue. Its all there and fun around you. It’s the teachers that are the issue.

Jasmine good friend is doing a course that teaches he rot be a Nursery teacher. Dam cool. But as a part of her study she has to submit numerous teaching aids. She has to paint Raavan and then paint the Ram story and then something else. And tons of craft and art has it be submitted. How would making all these ‘teaching aids’ make you a great teacher. And how is it that if you don’t know or are bad at art and craft, would make you a bad teacher. Your job is to have fun with the kids, enjoy, teach them about basics, respect, independence and authority. Manners, courtesy and care – that’s important. How much of the teacher’s course involves using eth multimedia tools available and understanding the psychology of the kids and the growth patterns we see in particular ages. Sometimes we are just happily stuck in the dark ages!

Some more bonus Patch Adams quotes. I want to see that movie with Jispa now.

Hunter Patch Adams: Our job is improving the quality of life, not just delaying death.

Mitch Roman: I don't like you!

Hunter Patch Adams: Why don't you like me? You're a prick and I like you.

Hunter Patch Adams: And if we bury you ass up, I have got a place to park my bike.

Hunter Patch Adams: [Patch is trying to convince Rudy not to be afraid of squirrels] What could they want? Your nuts?

And the sermon is seen here

an umbrella of fantasy

It’s been one of my parenting dreams, to enjoy a good movie with Jispa. Jispa’s and my taste in movies don’t exactly match. But it’s getting there. Till a long period of time she was stuck in feel good animation. Slowly she moved on to the Avengers kind of stories and I think she even watched a few X- men series. But there was hardly anything that I could be really happy with. Once long before I watched Gandhi with her. She was still pretty small at the time. I think she was hardly 8 years old. I think I have blogged about it. At the end she was in tears as Gandhi was shot and she famously asked – “The British did not kill Gandhi? We Indians only killed him?” Epic moment in growing up.

So every time at Abbas Library where we borrow the movies, Jispa and me have an epic fight. Which movie to see. She ends up seeing movies I hate. I hate sweet cute movies meant for ‘family’ and that I get so worked up over. And I am done with animation movies. I have seen so many that I hardly can tolerate any new ones. The really fresh animation content aka Kung Fu panda is hard to come by anymore. So we always spend a long time at the library trying to get this right. most of the time we end up taking either her movie or my movie in which case she is not interested / permitted to see it. Hardly any properly family movie that the family enjoys.

Just this weekend – I saw ‘Saving Mr Banks’ on the library display. An Oscar kind of movie? Would Jispa really enjoy it? But then it’s produced by Disney and has the ‘Disney’ label on it. It is possibly quite an interesting one. So we took it home and we began watching it at night. Jasmine reminds me of my dad. Whenever a movie starts my dad would simply go to sleep. Jasmine too just dozes of through the movies. She is just too tired to watch a movie at night. And I guess the TV screen gives out some relaxing signals as well. I guess if we are forced to sit in one place and free our minds – they simply just doze off. I remember my Yoga classes.

But then Jispa and I were watching this movie and we were commenting on it. The movie is about how Disney broke their head with the Author of Mary Poppins while trying to get the script and screen play right for the movie. Of course I am assuming that only a genesis of the idea is real with a lot of fiction thrown in for making it an engaging screen play. But forget all those inanities. Just watch the movie for the amazing characters. Especially that of the author PL Travers. Emma does a wonderful job with her uptight English portrayal and her amazing use of English to spew acerbic around her. Jispa and I were so much in love with her character. In sharp contrast was Walt Disney. Full of life, American capitalist spreading joy in the world, for unashamed gains. And then you contrast with her flashback, where she sees her fun dad succumb to alcohol. I loved the movie and so did Jispa.

We discussed it for some time and we both enjoyed it when in the flash back, her Aunt (the Mary Poppins inspiration) comes to her home.

Afterwards while we were discussing the movie, I spoke to Jispa about my views on alcohol. I explained that I don’t see anything hugely wrong in drinking. Nopes, it’s not necessarily a bad thing but then there are other ramifications to it. I explained what my dad used to say. Drinking a glass is not bad. The problem is that it doesn’t stop there.  That’s when it gets bad. I explained that when we go on a holiday, I go so that we spend time with each other. I see families where the dad sits at the table with his drink, while the family looks on. Sure he enjoys his beer, but I see that as time that I waste away from my family. I want to spend time with Jispa and Jasmine and why should I drink in that time. Plus she also saw the ill effects in the movie from drinking.

That was my chat about drinking to her. Drinking smoking etc are difficult topics to talk about. When Jispa gets older it’s going to be her choice on what she wants to do. I would surely not like her to start this when she is younger than 18. But its not like they really will tell you when they start. That’s my problem. I don’t like it but I don’t really want to oppose it. My views are my views. They remain my views, I don’t want to impose them but I would surely like to them to influence towards a choice to be made. I just think that the choice is not favorably loaded on your side. So that’s that!

But it still was a lovely movie and I loved watching it with Jispa.

Bonus song : what else chim chimeree from Mary Poppins. It was very nicely used in this movie.

Also the final song which served as the ultimate redemption