The Science Of Music

          

     

           Unless we have been locked up in a closed room all our lives, it is certain that we would have come across it at some point or another. It has the power to enthrall one to elation, subdue one's spirits to the pits, make one feel the bittersweet pinch of nostalgia and reach myriad other emotions with the help of its various hypnotic avatars. Yes, it's 'Music' .We hear it , we sing it, we learn it. But do we ever wonder about how it works, the way it does? It has been found that music is even similar in effect to a few pleasure inducing drugs on the human mind. Why does this happen? In school and college curricula, Music is always listed as a 'Fine Art'. Aren't we ignoring the 'Science' aspect of it? My curiosity whetted, I searched for a few answers and I want to share my limited understanding with you. I got a lot of answers from a book named 'This Is Your Brain on Music' by a neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin. I have discussed three of the most important questions that I had.

               1) Where did Music come from?

           Music has been around for thousands of years, even pre-dating agriculture. To understand the origin of music, let us borrow a term from architecture called as 'Spandrel'. It refers to the extra space left at the corners when an arch is made in a rectangular space. Being a by product of the arch, resourceful architects not wanting to waste it, end up making angels or other decorations in the space. 

A typical Spandrel

          This is an analogy to explain that Music is a spandrel to Language. It is a beautiful byproduct of it and was discovered, probably by prehistoric man imitating the calls of the wild. It is no secret knowledge that several animals and birds use musical mating calls to attract potential mates. Starting with coarse songs, primitive drums and flutes, music has now evolved to branch out into a plethora of different forms. Humans discovered the pleasure associated with musical sound and registered it, just as they discovered the pleasure associated with eating fats and sugars. Just as language developed, so did its sibling, Music.

            2) What makes music so appealing?

           Believe it or not, the extent of pleasure induced by music is measured by its ability to exercise the mind. Our  body's neural network is designed to improve the predictability of our actions to a set of stimuli. When we learn walking, talking, writing we are conditioning ourselves to improve our predictability. If we make proper effort, the next time we write, we write better. If a child predicts his next step wrong while learning how to walk, he will fall down. This proves to be painful for the child and consequently, he will  not end up enjoying the process of learning to walk. 

             When a person listens to a piece of music, in his mind he is essentially predicting the next beat or rhythm of the song. The beauty of this is that, it is totally harmless, and contradictory to learning to walk, there will not be any consequences if the mind predicts it wrong. In fact, when the mind does predict the next beat right, the brain awards the body with a surge of hormones which relaxes the body. It is this lack of fear and motive of reward that makes music so pleasurable. If the song is too predictable, the excitement produced is lesser than if it requires more complex prediction models. This explains the fact that when we listen to a song over and over again, a time inevitably comes when we get 'tired of it'. When we listen to it again after a long time gap we regain the original pleasure because the brain has forgotten the rhythm pattern in the meantime and has to predict is all over again. The complexity of music one enjoys increases with exposure to incremental levels of music. We hardly enjoy any rock music in kindergarten, we are content with our 'nursery rhymes'.

            3) What about the biology behind music?

           I know pairing up biology with music sounds ridiculous, but it is nevertheless, true. We all know that humans consider symmetry attractive. Faces of the other gender which have a higher degree of symmetry are considered more attractive than others. Music, depicted as a waveform is all about symmetry of the  rhythmic beats. Noise signals lack any kind of rhythm and are thus very unpleasant to hear. It has been ingrained in nature of human beings that symmetry is beauty, making music pleasing to the senses.

           When people listen to complex rhythms, various parts of the brain like left frontal cortex, left parietal     cortex and cerebellum get activated. This explains why memory is often enhanced with music. We are able to recall many experiences when we chance upon the music that had been playing in the background at that time. Music therapy is also used to treat Alzheimer's patients who are able to recall experiences when they are made to listen to music they had heard during the experience. Musical memory is more effective than learning memory and this has been testified by the fact that before written language emerged, many ancient texts were passed down through generations by song recitals. 

         So, is this satisfactory evidence to believe that 'The Mozart Effect' is not merely a myth- Can babies born to mothers who listened to Mozart's symphonies while they were pregnant, really grow up to be smarter? Maybe yes- they had been forced, by over-ambitious parents into training their brain in the comfort of the womb itself. Assuming that the sound is able to penetrate all the way into the womb, I guess we have found a way of increasing the collective IQ of the world.  

Images from the Internet

        

          

Vegetable

Emaciated as a withered spinach leaf,
Skin shriveled like an overripe gourd,
She was adamantly closed to the world
Like the leaves of a cabbage.
Was she just a vegetable after all?
I vehemently refused by my tongue
But my mind had its own mind.
Doubts rushed in like the red blood
Flowing persistently in her arteries.
At least blood hadn't betrayed her,
standing next to her cadaverous body.
Could she feel our presence out there?
Was there just a hint of radiance
peeping out of her pallid complexion,
Or was it just a distant reflection of her,
as she saw the blinding light beckoning
at the end of the tortuous tunnel?
Would she open her exhausted eyelids,
to give us her stern loving looks again?
Like a sentence resumes after a comma,
We wanted her to continue her life,
and continue being there in ours.
She was unaware, unfeeling, unconscious,
just like a vegetable.

The Magic of a Single Room

              

Image from the Internet

          Gone are the days when a movie ceased to be worth watching  if it lacked a string of picturesque settings, action packed scenes with an inferno of automobiles shooting up in the air and coming toppling over each other, sunglasses - sporting heroes displaying their enviable gun handling tactics and glamorous heroines stealing the show. After watching two movies, 'The Man from Earth' and 'Exam', I recently discovered a liking  for a new genre of movies which, even though shot in just a single room, with very ordinary people and absolutely no stunts or automobiles to show off with, manages to captivate the viewer just as any other movie, sometimes even a tad bit more. No voice overs dripping with sentimentality and nostalgia, just plain footages which focus on the dialogues and performance of the actors. 

           Mind you, you do need to have a flawless auditory reception to be able to make the most of such a film. An attention to detail is crucial, on the part of the producer as well as that of the viewer. The effects of every single line spoken by a character, every minuscule action of the protagonist are multiplied manifold due to the sheer confinement to a single room. Much like, when one is sitting in a quiet room, every small detail, whether it is the spider crawling slyly up the wall or more infamously, mysterious sounds at night, assume heightened proportions in the senses. No wonder that old mansions make an excellent setting for horror films. The claustrophobic setting seems to be a character by itself, infusing the horror component into the film.

         Just in case you haven't seen the aforementioned two movies, let me give you a brief overview of  both. 'Exam' is the story of eight candidates in an exam hall, who are competing for a position in an enigmatic  company. However, when they open their question papers, all of them find to their bewilderment that each one of the papers is completely blank. Any attempt to communicate with the invigilator or leave the room will disqualify them. So which of them will be able to find the correct question and the correct answer to make it to the post? And more importantly, till what extent is each of them ready to go to, to be the chosen one? Totally engaging, the eighty minute duration of the exam has the viewer riveted onto the screen, with the suspense gradually building up with every passing minute. Not wanting to give anything away, I just want to mention that the movie is a deep exploration of human interaction and psychology, testing the mind under conditions of stress and duress, and various types of human personalities.

        'The Man from Earth' has some elements of a discourse on immortality and its implications, when the protagonist decides to have his share of fun telling his peers during a farewell gathering that 'his time to move on had come' , since he had been alive since the prehistoric ages, and he had progressed his way from a caveman to a modern man, shifting every now and then to avoid being identified. He claims to have met the Buddha, Christopher Columbus and other eminent personalities. His friends do not believe him at first, but we can see the transition in their credulity as the protagonist unfolds his extra ordinary skill of story-telling. Things take an ugly turn when the protagonist claims to have been Jesus Christ himself and that he had never really died on the cross, he had just escaped. A pious lady calls him blasphemous and another man attempts to kill him out of envy for his self proclaimed 'immortality'. This gives a chance to analyze our own feelings about immortality. Do we really want it or would we rather live a normal lifetime? The movie seems to be a prank gone all wrong, but surprising events unravel at the climax, which takes place right at the ending. 

        These single room movies, apart from being very low budget or shoestring budget movies, give the viewer an extremely rich experience. The lack of variety in setting  is more than compensated by the saga of emotions and thoughts that the movie provokes in the viewer, an ultimate treat for the senses. Whether it shows a battle of wits in a court or murder scene, or one in which a few people are stuck in an elevator with the devil apparently amongst them, they all exhibit great talent of acting and directing. And most of them prove to be goosebumps- producing thrillers as well, which can put to shame many higher budget block busters. I am surely going to watch a few more of these if I can. IMdb can help me out on this . Here is the link for those of you whose interest I have managed to garner through this article. http://www.imdb.com/list/sVai-UOL6Ow/  . These movies are probably the quintessence of  'Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication' . 

     

My culinary debut

           December has come. Time to reside, without any worries at Home Sweet Home. I want to utilise the time to start my training as a novice cook. It is time to unearth the culinary passion in me. I know it's there within me, I just know it. Known as a hardcore 'Foodie' and having a fetish for all things delicious, I thought the time had finally arrived to give some effort back to the kitchen, after all these years of devoted hogging from it. (Only,of course I had the good fortune of having it available around me.) I think the fact that I just completed ten years of hostel life also had a substantial contribution towards my adoration towards luxury food and drink, and of course, the unbeatable, one and only 'Ghar ka Khana'. Home food...  It is the official love of my life. 

          So the morning I arrived, I was excited at the prospect of what to cook. Scrutinizing the kitchen shelf and refridgerator for prospective ingredients, and consulting my mother (admiring her deep and wise knowledge about cookery simultaneously) , I decided to make 'Alu Paneer Curry'. It was so fascinating, the process of metamorphosing a collection of deformed brown potatoes, pungent onions and various other sundry ingredients into such an aromatic, delectable and mouth-watering concoction of a dish. Creating something beautiful out of  crude materials was a form of art, and  I realised this while actually cooking. I was so delighted at having made my first dish, and also, I was starving at the time, so unfortunately I do not have a picture in which to proudly display it. However, if your eyes already haven't gone to the image, my second dish was Rajma , or Kidney Beans Curry. It was spicy red and had a tangy flavour, due to the tomato puree that had gone into it. 

             We have always been advised to eat our greens well. And as kids, we always made a long face even by just looking at them. In my boarding school, we kids used to devise ingenious ways of discarding them without the matron noticing. Now, many years later, I thought, why not make eating greens and spinach appetizing to eat, so that everyone could be invigorated with a 'Popeye the Sailor-Man' like urge to devour spinach.. Basically, the next item I made was 'Methi aloo gravy'. It was redolent of the country side, nutritious and was absolutely lip- smacking.  

           

                                                                                           

                 A glimpse of the complete lunch I prepared today.. I consider it as an important landmark of my life. A complete meal made by me. I never thought I was capable of this. But hurray, it turns out I am! I feel relieved, thinking that maybe in the future, my in- laws will not be so disappointed in me. It is an encouraging thought. Look at the image. Does it not look wholesome? Especially with the ghee melting on the rice.. I feel like having lunch all over again.

            This is just the beginning. I am still a beginner, learning the basics. Soon, I will be back with more exotic palate - tempting recipes for dishes I had once dreamed of having only in restaurants. Meanwhile, my respect has gone up for three people.. Housewives, who are the only ones who truly know about healthy and sumptuous cooking, Restaurant chefs who cook so efficiently and so quickly for petulant customers, and also  for Sanjeev Kapoor. Visit his website and you will know why. He is just as awesome as his recipes. I am  just loving my new hobby.

To Literature

Courtesy : Google Images

Mighty as a marching Roman legion,
Versatile as the varying seasons,
Pleasing as a scented morning flower,
It enthralls the mind at any hour,
And in every language and region.

Unfurling a novel world of its own
With every form that it loans,
Literature is an adaptable mould,
Shaping words into intricate gold,
Lines worthy of the highest throne.

It is an enchanting companion,
Having words as faithful minions
To strangers it is not subservient
Only ardent fans are deemed puissant
Mastery gained by few in a million.

Just as a captivating art form,
The inflections in a rhyme perform,
A dance at the tip of the tongue,
Accompanied by a lilt of a song.
Written tales into a drama transform.

Stories transport a mind somewhere far
Through a gilded door of a book cover ajar
Essays celebrate a conflict of opinion
Prose emulates the beauty of a stallion
Pulchritude and strength at par.

Poetry satiates the hungry soul
Simile, metaphors create a parallel scroll
Transcending barriers to breach
into experiences beyond mortal reach.
Ballads recount fables, never getting old.

The subtle mirth of a satirical pun,
Contradiction of a smart oxymoron
Playing cruel tricks on the intellect,
Figures of speech beguile unless outsmarted.
A benign aphorism gives advice with elan.

Literature, beauteous hidden gift of language.
In its clasp can hold readers' emotions hostage.
Exuding a exhilarating chortle one second,
The next having the spirits dampened,
Always leaving behind a rewarding message.

Courtesy: Google Images

Images from the Internet

The RatRace

     

Courtesy : Google Image

                     It is the frenzy, the maddening race that prevails in our life today. We might not actually see the race tracks, but it is very much there, carved into our paths, drilled into our minds, insidious in nature. There is a constant burning urge for people to overtake their neighbours  in this great marathon. Caught up in the heat of the moment, they forget all but the range covered by the pursuit -and the pursuit of what exactly ? If your answer to that is happiness, you are under a blinding illusion because that is one thing we are actually running away from, by participating in the competition, by entering the labyrinth and getting lost in it.

         

                   Friends compete with each other for better scores and ranks in studies and academic activities. If only we could be confident enough of ourselves and let go of rivalries, co operate with each other, we would not only let go of all embitterment but also make a marked improvement in our performance. Agreed, part of the reason this doesn't actually happen is that the Indian education system asks for it. The disparity in the supply and demand of seats in colleges and companies makes it inevitable that quite a pandemonium is created across student circles. It spawns distrust, jealousies and also depression for all those who cannot keep up with the rest. This can have quite a debilitating effect on the entire student community. If only it could be a relay instead of an individual race, where we could pick up a baton from our team mates to win as one team. Everyone would be happy, everyone would have achieved. 

                   Okay, for the moment let us set aside academic competition. Lets take a look at some of the more ridiculous forms of warfare that go on among people, especially youngsters. The clash to own better gadgets, better clothes, and hell ya, even the clamour to get the most likes on pictures on Facebook!! (How many times have you been implored by companies and products with the line 'Like us on Facebook'?) . It has gone to the level that now Mr Zuckerberg is planning on deleting all the fake profiles conjured up for the sole purpose of canvassing 'Likes' and inflating their public profile. Apart from these, there are other innumerable comparisons being done like best bike, prettiest girlfriend, richest boyfriend, best gifts received on birthdays...blaaaaah. Leaving intricate details aside, the broad picture shows an extreme form of depravity and materialism that has seeped into the life of youngsters today.

               Even though I can't say I really enjoyed Karan Johar's 'Student of The Year', it had one point worth noting. A single competition to win the school's most prestigious award marred all friendships,even turned the students bitter towards their parents. There would be no worthwhile memories to be left behind, just a single trophy in the hands of a single person. Even in the domestic scene, we see siblings competing to outdo each other, to earn a wider share of their parents' attention. They don't want to share rooms with each other because they want a bigger room for themselves. More the belongings, better the life, that's what they think. Where is the love, damn it?  Do we want to grow up remembering the steel cover of our laptop, or do we want to grow up on the loving bonds of our parents and siblings? Are memories of our gadgets and clothes going to live with us or will our memory ring with the uncaring laughter and joy of your family members' sweet voices? Although this is totally our choice to make, I will end the rhetoric of this paragraph by saying 'Hug your sister or brother, mother or father today. Show them you love them now, do not wait till later, because later never comes. Take that one holiday from your work to spend time with your family.' It will do a whole lot of good for you.

               If ever we can slow down, sidestep our race track and leave the maze altogether, we will find richer pastures to explore, a brighter horizon and have more prospects for adventure. And one day, we will see that we will have reached a point analogous to our former finishing line, but the difference is that, we will not stop there, we will keep on going further, as there is no real finishing line in life. Also, the satisfaction we will get will not be one of having defeated our friends and family, it will be one of having done good ourselves. I will add the cliched line 'Compete against yourself, not against others'. Because only we have the power to truly forgive ourselves, others will never forgive us completely. We are not rats scuffling for a block of cheese, we are humans, capable of learning from each other. After all, as the famous philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthi said ' Everyone is a student, and everyone is a teacher.'

Images from the Internet

The Festival of Lights

Setting the skyline ablaze,
It celebrated its own grand arrival.
Diwali, the festival of lights was here.
Scintillating fireworks danced in the air
flaunting their vibrancy.
Resplendent lamps adorned homes,
beckoning to the Goddess Lakshmi.
Little boys burst noisy crackers
on the crowded local street.
Being boisterous made them happy.
Troubling innocent passer-bys,
they giggled mercilessly,
and then gorged on sweetmeats.
Draped in their finest saris,
the women personified harmony.
Praying and chanting devoutly,
they wished for love and prosperity.
Celebrities hosted luxurious parties,
with sumptuous dishes and savouries,
The aroma wafting in the air.
It was the festival of grandiosity.
For some, it wasn't.
College students missed familial bonds.
It was one of the rare times
rooms became tidy and immaculate.
That was the very least they could do.
Taking a stroll on the beach side,
they admired the luminous ambience.
Lighting a few sparklers now and then
to watch the beauty dazzle away.
A few girls remained aloof,
Diwali was too mainstream
for them to participate in.
From the prison compound,
he gazed at the unbound sky.
It seemed to taunt him,
exalting in illuminated glory.
Nostalgia swept cruelly over him.
He longed for his wife's caress
and his daughter's laughter.
Diwali, came and left.
And gave different gifts to all.


Images from the Internet