The People Behind The Manhattan Project

Here are some of the people central to the Manhattan Project that you should know about.

Albert Einstein

Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist known for his work on gravity, E=mc², and the quantum theory among other things.

On Epistemic Objectivity

The human mind is shaped by and tied to the language it speaks while communicating with other minds or itself.

We keep asking, “But what does it mean to say I know something?” or “What is knowledge?”. Think about it. What does this question presuppose? It presupposes that there is something called knowledge which we are trying to understand. In a mathematical context, the question “what is X?” is ill-posed unless X has been already defined in some form and now we are either asking for the definition or seeking to express what X is in a different form. When we ask what knowledge is, are we asking about the meaning of the word “knowledge” or the actual thing that this word talks about? Unless we answer the former, the latter is ill-posed. How do we investigate the meaning of words?

Why and How to Use Encrypted Emails

The Problem

Privacy (often misunderstood as secrecy) is recognised as a fundamental human right in almost all modern civil societies, and is a cornerstone of democracy. However, it goes without saying that all major free email service providers, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com etc., do not adhere to the highest standards of privacy protection. Although they have made their systems top notch in terms of convenience and security (from external attackers), your email communications are not private from them. Since you do not pay them for their service, they get their revenue elsewhere such as from advertisement companies to whom your data is the product. Anyway, even if they decide to stop using your email conversations for targeted advertisements, they still have the ability to read your personal correspondences at their convenience. They do not even need a warrant. A rogue top-level employee could read your emails for malicious purposes, for instance. Also, what about the idea of mass surveillance of whole populations by governments (for example, to suppress dissent or activism)? Are you comfortable with that kind of snooping (which is very different from a targeted search and seizure upon warranted suspicion of a crime)? Of course, all of this happens with your permission because you agreed to their privacy policy when you signed up for the free account.

What is Learning? — An Example of Linear Classification

Problem. Suppose that we are a bank trying to learn the creditworthiness of our current customers. Our resources include a database of the history of previous customers who have been already classified as defaulters or not. Based on this history, we are to learn the function $f$ which takes a customer as input and spits out the (binary) value of their creditworthiness ("yes" or "no").

[Assume that the customers are linearly separable.]

What is Learning?

To put it in simple words, learning is the process by which an entity gains the ability to predict outcomes in an unknown domain by experiencing or observing patterns in a known domain of data. Learning means to study the features of a given sample of data and come to an inductive generalization or extrapolation of such characteristics for the entire population of which the sample is merely a part. For example, you observe that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west today and tomorrow and the days after that every day for a year. By the end of the year, if you predict that the sun will rise again in the east and set in the west—correctly so—then you have learnt.

Fermions in the Standard Model

This post is more like a note-to-self for future reference.

Wick Rotation — What happens to the integration limits?

🚧🚩 IMPORTANT: Mathjax typesetting does not load in mobile version. Please use desktop page. Apologies for the inconvenience.

This is a genuine question that arises in the minds of students in a class where Wick rotation is discussed carelessly. It is a very simple observation.

On the Ethics of Arranged Marriages (in India)

Much has been said already. Yet I feel the need to speak out on this matter over and over again.

Despite the apparent success of arranged marriages in India, I must tell you that such success is only apparent and the actual structural basis of such marriages is morally questionable. I will try to analyse the arguments put forward by the traditional apologist (read, for instance, this article published by Times of India) in favour of arranged marriages. In doing so, we will hopefully realise that it is not a matter of lifestyle or culture to choose other forms of marriage over the traditional setup of arranged marriages, but a matter of moral imperative to condemn such established social practices that are inherently evil.

Literature Recommendation: Quantum Field Theory

Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is one of the marvellous accomplishments of the last century, but even today it is shrouded in mystery and hysterical infamy to newbies. For a beginner, it can be absolutely daunting, given the sheer abundance of books, formalisms and conventions to choose from. The paradox of choice, I believe!

Let me guide you through my idea of how one should approach QFT. To begin with, you will need absolute fluency in Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. After all, we intend to conjoin these theories in a holy union. Here are some topics you should be familiar with:

Identity, An Analysis From A Common Man’s Perspective

[Guest article by Dr. Shahadat Ahmed]

Patriotism is a cool attribute to have in one’s neurons to live peacefully in most countries of the world. It does not matter whether you live in Somalia, Afghanistan or USA; you are made to believe that you are living in the best country in the world as you grow up chanting the national anthem of that country. There are aberrant people in every country who show some resistance in following this concept and once in a while those people deny to accept the passport of a particular country, be it America or Britain or Vatican City. When we argue that if there is no boundary of countries in the world, everybody will tend to move to more resourceful countries and it will be impossible to live in those countries, it probably makes sense, looking at the present situation of Syrian refugee’s European exodus. Getting a rented place in Munich will be impossible when suddenly a million people end up arriving at the major railway station of Munich. Even the roads of Bangalore are an example of how unplanned migration can be devastating. So the need of restricting people's movement across countries is very convincing but does that justify making everybody so patriotic that they start hating people of other nations? After going abroad only, I realized that in Pakistan also, clean shaved modern thinking human beings live and so was true with the Pakistani scientist whom I met in Berlin. He was of the opinion that India is a country full of saffron clad hate mongers. I was surprised to hear the opinion of friends from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka about my beloved country India. It seems people from these countries have some complaint about our dealing with either their politics or their natural resources. They don’t love India, as much as we think they should. Sitting in India, we would never know, what brainwashing, those citizens go through in their childhood, to hate India so much.

Busting Myths About Heisenberg's Uncertainty :: Episode 3

Aah! Finally, we come to our actual topic of discussion! But you see all that previous discussion (check out Episode 1 here) was necessary to build you up for this final stage. (If you have skipped all of the above, I would recommend you at least skim through them fast so that your concepts are all brushed up and shining clean.)

Busting Myths About Heisenberg's Uncertainty :: Episode 2

[For the New Readers: This is a continuation of the discussion started in Episode 1.]

What is the Wave-Particle Duality?

WARNING: PUT YOUR IMAGINATION CAPS ON! WE ARE ENTERING DANGEROUS TERRITORY.

You see this is the main source of confusion and misunderstanding in all of Quantum Mechanics. If we understand this well, we're half way through.

In the beginning of the last century, physicists came to notice that under certain very delicate situations, the electromagnetic waves – I said “waves” mark it! – seemed to behave like particles. Particles? But how can that possibly be? Waves and particles are totally opposite kind of things (you should be able to appreciate this now). How can delocalized waves which can pass through one another and interfere to add up or cancel each other, behave like localized particles which hit each other and bounce off? Well, no one knows! Not even today. Then how does it make sense at all? It doesn't – thinking classically.

Soon it was found that electrons behave in the same way, that is they are screwy exactly the same way as photons are. They behave like particles or waves or both or neither depending upon the experiment.

So what are these electrons? Particles? Waves? If waves, then waves of what? No one knows. Now we have given up on thinking about these questions on how crazy nature behaves. We think differently now. We think quantum mechanically. That is to say, we don't know and we believe, even nature doesn't know what is going on down at those tiny scales. But there is still a certain order to things, and that order is encapsulated in the theory of quantum mechanics.

You see the whole of quantum mechanics is based on three fundamental postulates: (1) The Superposition Principle, (2) The Measurement Principle and (3) Unitary Evolution.

Objects such as electrons or photons or any thing for that matter (I call them objects because I don't know whether to call them particles or waves or both or neither) have a certain wave-function associated with them that describes their state. I do not know what that wave is. I cannot physically measure it in any way possible. Trust me on this, I simply cannot. In an em-wave, I know the fields oscillate. In sound waves, pressure through air oscillates. In water waves, the water surface level oscillates. In this case, I do not know what shit oscillates. But I know this: the oscillations can have complex amplitudes (seriously?) and the absolute value squared of the amplitude is a measure of the probability distribution function describing the probability of existence of an object (as a particle) in a certain definite position for example. Now that is something I can measure! If there are several alternatives an object can take, there is an amplitude associated with each of these alternatives, and the state of the object is a vector sum of all these amplitudes. This is known as the Superposition Principle. It means nature does not know anything about which of the alternatives it should take (eg. which position it should occupy). It is in a superposition of all the alternatives. I don't know what that means though.

Difficult to understand? Well take the example of the double-slit experiment with electrons shot one at a time. If we think that the electron went through either one "OR" the other slit but not through both, we would run into very fundamental logical inconsistencies if at the same time we observed an interference pattern at the other end of the setup; but we do observe an interference pattern and therefore we must shun our intuition, our classical notion about a particle taking only one "OR" the other of all the available possibilities. Does that mean the particle goes through both the slits (splitting into half, going through both slits and interfering with itself), that particles in general "exist" in a fuzzy state taking up all the available possibilities at the same time? Well, we don't know. And we leave such questions for jobless philosophers to answer, because if we try to answer this question experimentally (like all physicists do), we find out that the particle goes through either slit1 or slit2, but not both. But having found that out, we do not run into any logical inconsistencies because nature leaves us without any interference and we're dumbstruck at her subtlety you see.

Two important fundamental principles of quantum mechanics are deduced from this experiment: 1) THE SUPERPOSITION PRINCIPLE which, as we have discussed earlier, states that there are amplitudes associated with any observation (the intensity or square of which is a measure of the probability of that observation to occur) and the resultant amplitude which describes the state of the system is a superposition of the amplitudes associated with all the possibilities that may exist for the system. 2) THE MEASUREMENT PRINCIPLE which states that a measurement of the state of the system reveals only partial information about it, reducing the resultant amplitude to just ONE of the total possibilities. This is also known as the collapse of the wave-function. It is only after a measurement is made that nature decides upon which of the alternatives she should take.

Take a break now! It's a lot to digest. Ruminate on what you have just read. Probably read the paragraphs again and then proceed. I would advise you read them twice and think about them thrice.

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Let us investigate a little bit more about what these wave-functions are. Read about the meaning of unitary evolution yourself. It just stresses on the fact that a particle, at any given instant of time, almost surely takes up at least one of the infinite plethora of possibilities. For example, I would expect the probability that an electron is somewhere there in the limitless vastness of space, to be equal to unity. A wave-function that ensures that, is called a normalized wave-function. The time evolution of wave-functions must preserve this normalization condition. The principle of unitary evolution is thus also known by the name 'principle of conservation of probability.' I will not talk about it now. You read it yourself. Cool? It's easy shit, but a very useful concept.

Think about this question. Where is the wave? Where does it float? Space obviously – the space around us, isn't it? Well, I would not shoot a “yes” right away at this. There is a certain amount of mathematical subtlety that you need to understand here. What is this space if I may ask? It is the set of all positions, is it not? Yes, of course! But I call that space by a special name: the position configuration space, because I consider the set of positions which would specify a configuration of the object I might want to study, in terms of the object's position or positions of the constituents of the object. Mostly when I say space I mean the position configuration space. But I can have other configuration spaces as well, for example the momentum configuration space which is the set of all momenta that an object can take. Here I will not have the x, y and z-axes, but perhaps p_x, p_y and p_z-axes. Suppose I know of a wave-function ø(x,t) in the position space and I ask, how does it look in the momentum space? What is the form of ø(p,t)? How do I do that? Do you know it? I will give you a hint! You have already come across this transformation several times, perhaps unknowingly but you have for sure. It obviously has something to do with position and momentum. Stop! Make a guess first before reading any further.

Well, don't be surprised when I tell you it's a Fourier transform. It comes from the famous de Broglie's relation which postulates that if the wave-function associated with a single object, ø(x,t) be an infinite plane wave of fixed wave number k₀ (remember this implies that the object is completely delocalized in space: it is in a superposition of all the infinite number of positions, equally weighted – close your eyes and imagine, my friend!), then the object has a fixed momentum given by p₀=ħk₀. Thus in the momentum space, the wave-function looks like a sharp spike at p=p₀ (it is a Dirac-delta function to be precise). You should be knowing from your study of mathematics that the Fourier transform of a plane wave is a Dirac-delta. In general, the transformation from the position configuration space to momentum configuration space and vice versa is accomplished by Fourier transforms. Period! There are reasons why it is a Fourier transform. It has to do with the superposition principle. It is a very beautiful picture actually. But I'll keep that tale for some other day. Right now, just get this straight. An object completely delocalized in the position space (thus meaning a plane wave associated with it) has a fixed definite momentum and conversely, an object completely delocalized in the momentum configuration space has a fixed definite position. An object partially delocalized in one of the configuration spaces would also be partially delocalized in the other configuration space.

But why do we need to look at it from another perspective? Is not position configuration space enough? Why do we need all these other configuration spaces?

Well, imagine this scenario. Say you have a nice wave-function ø(x,t) in the position space, in case of an electron for example. You would expect the probability distribution function ℙ(x,t) to be equal to the intensity of that wave, that is to say ℙ(x,t)=|ø(x,t)|². Now see that means, the object is not fixed at any position x but has a certain probability of being at any position x ranging from minus infinity to plus infinity. However, since you know the probability density ℙ(x,t), you can calculate the mean position x_mean very easily from the formula you should be knowing from your study of elementary statistics and probability: just integrate x.ℙ(x,t) from minus infinity to plus infinity. x_mean in general would be a function just of time. But keep in mind that the electron is not just there in the position x=x_mean, it is in fact everywhere until you make a measurement to find out where it is. You cannot really predict deterministically the outcome of such a measurement. The result would be random. However, if you make simultaneous measurements on a large number of identical systems, you would mostly find the electron to be near x=x_mean . Now suppose we want to know the momentum of the electron. What do we do? Since the mean changes with time, is the momentum proportional to the time derivative of x_mean? But we can't be sure about this, because x_mean is just the mean position. We have no conception about the idea of a classical position here. We are dealing with average values for God's sake. So how do we go about it?

There, you see! Because we know how to transform to the momentum configuration space, we can go about finding how the probability distribution function appears like in this space. Once we have the distribution over momentum space ℙ(p,t)=|ø(p,t)|², we can very easily calculate the average momentum p_mean using the same formula that we know from elementary statistics. Well it turns out that the average momentum is proportional to the time derivative of the average position (the proportionality constant being the electron's mass). That's an unexpected surprise but a pleasant surprise indeed. (It also turns out that the time derivative of the average momentum is equal to the average force – voila! Newton's law hidden in averages, another pleasant surprise!). Do keep in mind that these are just averages we are dealing with. In general, there will be a non-zero standard deviation from the mean.

So now you see the usefulness of different configuration spaces. If you want to find the mean of an observable quantity of your interest, just transform to that specific configuration space and then it is all very easy. For example, you want the average energy, go to the energy configuration space and compute the mean from the formula you know.

Take a deep breath now. Let me summarize by pointing out what we have learnt about wave-functions a.k.a. matter waves in this long discussion.

• Wave-functions do not mean point-like particles traveling in a sinusoidal path. That is a very wrong picture (and means you haven't understood the concept of waves well)! Matter-waves are mathematical waves of some uncanny shit which we cannot possibly imagine in a thousand years. However their intensities have a precise physical significance. They are probability distribution functions. E.g. a plane wave ø(x,t)=Aexp[i(kx–wt)] may be associated with an object but would never be physically observable. However, |ø(x,t)|²=A² is a physically measurable quantity – the probability distribution!

• Electrons, photons and all objects in this universe do not behave like particles, neither do they behave like waves. They behave like nothing we have ever had any direct experience with. We call them matter-waves. But we do not know what they are, how they look or what they do, but only that they exist because we have seen what happens to the world when they interfere. They do have observable consequences by which they make their presence felt – and that is how we study them! However, whenever we make any measurement, the wave-function collapses!

• Wave-functions need not be plane waves always. In fact, to tell you the truth, they never really are. Plane waves are non-physical wave-functions because they are non-normalizable (check it!). However, you should know from your knowledge of Fourier analysis that if you stack together a lot of different plane waves, you can make up any nice function you want – that includes good normalizable waves that represent physical systems in our world. E.g. The wave described by ø(x,t)=Aexp[–b|x|–iwt] (try to imagine how that function looks like) is a nice normalizable function but is not a plane wave.

UPCOMING: What's the fuss about the Uncertainty Rule?

Check it out in Episode 3.





 

For mathematical and technical details, contact me.

Busting Myths About Heisenberg's Uncertainty :: Episode 1

I have observed that there has been a lot of confusion and misunderstanding regarding the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (and Quantum Mechanics in general) among undergraduate students and surprisingly also among some Indian textbooks following the old curriculum. I therefore take it as a challenge to clarify these misconceptions and present it here in this text. I'll make it very easy. Just try to use your gift of imagination along with me.

I will divide this entire thing into three episodes so that you are not intimidated by the length of this post.

Let us first set the basics right so that there is no miscommunication between us in the future. You can skip the topics which you think is butter and cheese for you. Go at your own pace.

[For those of you who want a more precise and mathematically coherent and rigorous description of the ideas I am about to discuss, please contact me and I will upload a post separately.]

Optional Advise: Put on some soft music in background and read through the material. Enjoy!

What are Waves?

Imagine a body moving in a zigzag path which is say like a sine curve. Does that constitute a wave? No, it doesn't. If something moves in a wavy path, it doesn't mean it constitutes a wave motion.

Imagine a pendulum swinging simple harmonically. If you plot the angular displacement against time, you will see a sine curve developing. Does that constitute a wave then? No, it doesn't. Every sine curve doesn't imply wave motion. I will tell you what exactly constitutes a wave motion.

Imagine an infinitely long abacus board with just one bead in each vertical column (with infinitely so many columns next to each other). First get that picture right! Once you have that picture in your mind, know that a bead can move vertically up and down a column, but cannot jump into an adjacent column. Now settle each of the beads down to the bottom of the columns they are stuck to, so that you see a nice horizontal string (infinitely long mind you!) of beads packed next to each other. That we call an axis, say the x-axis with each bead representing a point in the axis, at this moment. Now rearrange the beads in such a way that you can make out another pattern, not like the original straight horizontal string anymore but like a sine curve now. So if you attach an axis along the columns that hold the beads, call it y-axis, then the pattern of the packing of the beads next to each other can be represented by the equation $ y(x) = A \sin(x) + B $. Now keep in mind that this equation represents a 'pattern' – just a damn pattern – of the arrangement of beads in a sequence at this instant of time, nothing more, nothing less. Get ready, we are close!

Suppose at the next instant of time, I make a rearrangement again and the new pattern looks as if the previous pattern has moved slightly to the right. Then again at the next instant, I rearrange the beads so that the pattern shifts slightly more to the right. If I do so at every instant of time making rearrangements of the beads continuously for a long time, I can see a continuous motion of the sine curve towards the right. Lo and behold! This is a wave, my friend! Yes this, – this is the very definition of a wave! (It mathematically translates to say that $ y(x,t) = A \sin(x – v t) + B $, where $v$ is the speed at which the sine curve appears to move towards the right).

So think! What is it that is moving towards the right? Is it the beads? No! Obviously not. It is the pattern. Beads only move up and down the columns remember? They cannot possibly move sideways. So as time progresses and I see a wave motion, what happens to the individual beads? How am I rearranging them every instant of time? Well, if you think about it for a little while, you will know that I am making each of the beads oscillate in their columns simple harmonically, with successive beads differing in their oscillation by just the right phase.

So what have we learnt about wave motion? Three things! First of all, there should be a lot of beads that can go up and down a column. Secondly, wave motion is the motion of a pattern in the arrangement of beads along their respective columns. And thirdly that when a wave passes through a string of beads, they execute simple harmonic oscillations in their respective columns in such a way that the pattern we call wave appears to move. (In general, the beads can oscillate in an-harmonic ways too). So nothing physical moves along with the waves. It's just the motion of patterns. But wait, it needs energy to set up oscillations in the beads. One needs to do the rearrangements at every instant of time. Who does that? So it must be that there is energy in the wave. And the energy in the wave does the rearrangements! Whoever first sets up a wave motion, puts up some energy in making the beads oscillate up and down, and as the pattern a.k.a. the wave moves further down the line, it takes the energy with it making other beads on its way oscillate up and down, thus making it possible for itself – a pattern – to progress through space with time. Thus we can have the following definition for a wave.

“Wave motion is the motion of energy through space.”

Let us take the example of electromagnetic waves in empty space. The array of beads is analogous here to the electric and magnetic fields set up in space. In the absence of any em-waves, their values are zero everywhere. However, the fields suddenly start to oscillate up and down in a particular direction when an em-wave gushes through them at the speed of light, and continue to do so at the frequency of the wave as long as the wave persists. It takes up energy to set up non-zero electric and magnetic fields in empty space. The wave carries that energy. We see the manifestation of that energy in the oscillation of the fields.

Clear, are we?

Think about all the properties of waves (delocalization, superposition etc.) that you have read about in textbooks already. Now is the right time.

What are Particles?

The idea of particles should not be a difficult topic for any of us to understand. But anyway, for those of you who want to read about it, particles are localized indestructible lumps of energy that behave exactly the same way as bullets shot from a gun would do.

There! I am not gonna repeat that again.

UPCOMING: The Mother of QM: The Wave-Particle Duality!

Read about it in Episode 2.

Applications of Group Theory ~~ A Brief Intro!

Group theory you see has many interesting applications in varied fields of science and technology because group theory is inherently a theory of symmetry and structure. I will not go through the details of any of these applications but rather discuss how I, as a physicist, personally use and appreciate group theory on daily basis.

On Woman!

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, long before the dawn of the earliest human civilizations, when our new species descended from the apes, there had been a division of labor. Man became the hunters and woman stayed behind looking after their children. The only reason for this division of labor was this undeniable nature of woman that she was a mother and the infant depended on her.

What we see today in this dear world of ours is a result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. Man turned physically stronger. Woman became more mentally mature. Civilizations grew. Cultures flourished. Religion became the cornerstone of proud societies. And today we face the evil side of these outcomes as much as we face the positive sides.

While it is true that men and women are not equal in all aspects and fundamental differences exist, it is also true that times have changed and the present structure of civilization demands equal opportunities for both men and women. It has only been recently realized that the female kind too are human beings with feelings and deserve more respect than man for they bear the seeds of our future generations in addition to being capable of serving humanity on a par with other men. It was not until the end of the Dark Ages of medieval Europe, that the western people started talking about human rights and the liberation of woman. A rapid decline of religious preoccupation was witnessed in people as atheists grew in number during the nineteenth century. In the late twentieth century Europe went so far as to spring into existence something called the Sexual Revolution. In the meantime, the Orient still lingered in darkness and woman continued to be treated as mere instruments of pleasure and were tortured brutally without any sign of mercy or compassion. The condition still prevails in many of the Muslim countries today. The non-Muslim countries are no exceptions either, although they have recently started to reform and move towards modernity.

It has been a male dominated society for quite a long time. Woman became objects for man to own. They were locked indoors like furniture in the house when men left for work. They were used for pleasure and household chores, then tortured at will, beaten black and blue, and sometimes murdered. It was all fair to society because women were possessions of men and the latter could do anything with them as he liked. It was a society where great thinkers like Aristotle believed woman to be an inferior species than man, who could own and use them at his will. And religion was woven in such ways to give pride to woman in being subjected to man, and religion encouraged such atrocities among men because religion was written down by the hands of men for their own profits.

I do not intend to belittle or insult any Prophet who walked on the face of earth for the sake of humanity. Rama the noble king of Ayodhya taught men by example the grace and victory of truth and justice. Moses led the entire nation of the Children of Israel out of slavery and hardship from the Pharaoh of Egypt. Jesus came unto earth as the Prince of Peace teaching men and women the power of love. Muhammad was sent as a mercy to mankind, whose mission statement was to build a nation where a beautiful young woman laden with jewelry will be able to travel alone long distances without any fear. However men have always gone astray after their Prophets left them and returned to their evil ways. They played around with the Scriptures, changed their meanings to suit their needs and invented lies against God to lead men away from truth and justice. Man fabricated religion with his own hands and this has brought down a plague on all of mankind that perhaps haunts even the angels of God. Evil is rampant today. Injustice is proud God-service. Women are raped, murdered and burned in the name of God, and people crowd together and watch the tamasha without even a sign of disgust.

Not long ago, there was the Sati system in India where women were burned alive with their dead husbands. The widows that lived were treated worse than dogs. They were confined in rooms to remain in seclusion, denied good food or even full meals, denied good clothes and other amenities of life, rebuked and tortured as if they were untouchables. It was better to be dead than to live as widows in India. The birth of a girl child was considered to be a curse. These infants were then murdered mercilessly. Many a times they were sacrificed before altars in temples. I would not mention about the practices of mentally sick priests or men who claimed divinity and their nasty rituals with women. Child marriage is still practiced openly in India although it is constitutionally banned.

Koheleth narrates the Ecclesiastes of the Old Testament. Agreed that he speaks great words of wisdom that man should try to learn, but when he speaks of woman, I must say he is being prejudiced against them. For instance he says, “I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare... While I was still searching but not finding, I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.” (Eccl. 7:26-28) In another context he says, “No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman... Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die.” (Eccl. 25:19,24) You can see the grudge that this man bears against woman. Even St. Paul speaks in a severe tone about woman in the New Testament, “A woman should learn in quietness and submission. I cannot permit a woman to teach or have authority over man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.” (I Timothy 2:11-14). In another place, Paul tries to reason that women must veil their head, and to enforce this he goes so much as to command that the woman who does not cover her head must have her head shaved. (I Corinthians 11:6) And in Ecclesiasticus 22:3 we read that the birth of a daughter is a loss. Believe me there are numerous other citations as such that undermine woman and preach against them. Myths are forged to give a divine connotation to the subhuman treatment of woman. More evil goes in the name of God than any other name in this world.

The extremist Muslims are known for their barbaric ways. Women are mostly stoned to death without fair trial in a court of law. A man can marry up to four wives at a time, and have extra concubines too. A man is even permitted to involve into temporary marriages for a few days. For they say they are only following the Sunnah (lifestyle) of the holy Prophet. (What a blasphemy!) So there is nothing wrong in it. However in some places the woman is supposed to guard her eyes even from looking at another man unless he belongs to her household. Otherwise she will be accused of adultery and stoned to death. You can find the clergy with the closed Quran on one hand and an amulet on the other, screaming repeatedly with others “Allaho-Akbar” (God is great) while public prosecutions of these victims take place. Women who are raped keep silent because their plea is almost always turned back on them and they are proven guilty of fornication or adultery.

Hardly any Muslim reads the Quran with understanding. It is only supposed to be recited properly, with or without understanding. The ordinary Muslim depends on the clergy for his religion who in turn relies on the Shariah laws derived from Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) which again in turn is almost fully based on Hadith which is nothing but baseless hearsay about the sayings of Prophet Muhammad collected almost two hundred years after his death. This turning away from the Quran and falling for fabricated Hadiths has caused the decline of the once glorious Muslim community. For instance, Sahih Bukhari (the most famous and revered collection of Hadith) reports the Prophet to have said, “The best man among my followers is one who has the greatest number of wives.” (Bukhari, Book of Nikah, Vol 3) On the other hand, the Quran teaches that the best of man is he who is best in conduct. (Ch. 49, V. 13) In another place, the Prophet is reported to have rebuked women as being deficient in intellect as well as religion, for which he saw them entering Hell in large numbers. (Bukhari, Book of Menstruation, Vol 1) On the other hand, the Quran teaches gender equity and good will towards women as in Ch. 4, V. 34:

“Men are the protectors and supporters of women. They shall take full care of women with what they spend of their wealth. God has made men to excel in some areas and women to excel in some areas. Righteous women are obedient to God's Ordinances and guard the moral values even in privacy, the values that God has commanded to be guarded.”

And the Quran also says this in Ch. 4, V. 1:

“O mankind! You have a common origin. There was one entity of life that divided into two, male and female. Eventually, numerous men and women came into existence on earth. Be careful of your duty to God in Whose Name you expect rights from one another, and reverence the wombs that bore you. God ever watches you!”

The Shariah laws must be banned in every country. The State government must take total control over all jurisprudence. The community of women must be educated and made to stand on their feet in society. No one can help people if they do not learn to help themselves. Woman! Raise your damn voice and claim what is rightfully yours. To keep silent during injustice is again injustice.

Much is left unsaid if I have to end here. This discussion can go on for several pages. But I must end here.

Is Man the Roof and Crown of God's creation?

We should first understand the differences between man and other creations of God in order to appreciate or renounce the ideology that man is the greatest of all creations. Let us explain this concept in view of the Quran which is the last of the scriptures in the Abrahamic or Semitic faith. 'Man-above-all' is a view highly regarded by the Judo-Christian faith, if not by other cultures all around the world. God speaks of the creation of mankind in allegorical terms as such:

Your Lord announced His Plan to the angels, “I am about to place on earth a new creation that will have supremacy over it.” They exclaimed, “Will you place on it such creation as will cause disorder therein and shed blood! - whereas we strive to manifest Your glory (in the Universe)!” He answered, “I know what you do not know.” And God endowed mankind with the capacity to attain knowledge. Then He showed the angels certain things and said to them, “Tell me if you have the capacity of learning about these, if you are truthful (and better qualified to have supremacy on the planet earth).” They humbly said, “Glorified are You, High above all! We only know what You have taught us (the tasks assigned to us). Most certainly, You, are all Knower, all Wise.”

Holy Quran, Ch. 2, V. 30-32

(English rendition by Dr. Shabbir Ahmed)

Knowledge and wisdom is what is unique to mankind. The capacity to think rationally and deduce from the abstract structure of the world the difference between truth and illusion, right and wrong, is what places us above all creations of God, as rulers of the planet Earth. In the language of science, homo sapiens are social animals. But there are other kinds of social animals too such as ants, bees and elephants. In fact, some creatures appear to be more social and altruistic than human beings. Take the example of squirrels. If a squirrel finds a forsaken infant squirrel it adopts the baby and raises it like its own child. Whereas even today some human beings dispose off their own girl infants in dustbins and never look behind. However compassion is as natural as violence. The famous biologist Richard Dawkins remarks,

“I shall argue that a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness. This gene selfishness will usually give rise to selfishness in individual behavior. However, as we shall see, there are special circumstances in which a gene can achieve its own selfish goals best by fostering a limited form of altruism at the level of individual animals.”

It is indeed a scientifically proven fact that everyone of us are selfish by virtue of our genetic instincts. No matter however generous and altruistic an animal might seem at first sight, deep down inside its genes are serving some selfish purpose. But there is a huge difference when it comes to human beings. We can choose to be different. We are endowed with the power to act different from what millions of years of evolution has brought us to. To quote the words of Richard Dawkins again,

“Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to.”

And that is exactly what makes us the roof and crown of God's creation – our intelligent choices!

Therefore the real question to ask is this: do we act today like the roof and crown of God's creation is supposed to act? Are we making wise and intelligent choices?

No, we are not! We are not using our brains these days. We are giving in to our basic animal instincts and forgetting who we truly are. The world is not at peace. There is violence all over. People are divided, each with their own set of beliefs and dogmas, intolerable towards other people who share a different opinion. This is all the result of ignorance and a mockery of human wisdom. Mankind is capable of doing miracles – setting voyages out for infinite space, traveling unimaginable distances at the blink of an eye, creating machines that can think and dream, and many such wonders that are yet to be witnessed in future. Art and science are but signatures of mankind's noble design. But as Voltaire said, “with great power comes great responsibility.” We must understand that. See what we have made of ourselves. Look upon history and you will find a world soaked in blood and gore. God made just one mankind. We made the Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jews. God gave us one planet to live in. We made India, Pakistan, America and Iran. Lo and behold! We are fighting our own kind and gradually moving towards the destruction of this majestic race called mankind. We are blinded by some persistent delusion that makes us think that we are obliged by some divine command to murder innocent people, rape their women, slaughter their children, pillage their cities and leave them burning.

See what Hitler did to the Jews. The Nazi bureaucrats sat together and worked out ways for the systematic slaughtering of all the Jews in Europe. Almost fifty million people were killed because of the war waged by Hitler – the World War II. Nearly twenty three million innocent civilians who wanted nothing but a simple life of peace, were brutally killed. Nearly six million Jews were murdered mercilessly in unimaginable barbarian ways. One million gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals, political dissidents and the disabled were murdered. Of the nearly seven million thus murdered, more than one and a half million were innocent children who knew nothing of the world.

This kind of tyranny is not new or old. Take for example the cannibalism and bloodbaths of the “Holy” Crusades. Of all the religious wars that have ever been waged in the history of mankind, none have been more bloodier, more genocidal and more barbaric than the two-hundred-year “holy war” by the Western Crusaders against the Arabs and Muslims. Their motive was simple and clear: to cleanse the holy land of Palestine and its vicinity by murdering all the Arabs (whether Muslim or Jew) “...on the ground that they had no right to inhabit their part of the earth, while for a Christian the whole world is his country.” (James David Barber)

Take the recent communists for an example too. Their goal was noble: to achieve an utopia where there was no poor and no rich, and everybody lived as equals in peace. See what they did in the name of this cause. In less than a hundred years, communism has claimed more than hundred million lives. Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks were destroyed. Forced famine was introduced in Ukraine and more than six million people were starved to death. Mao murdered tens of millions of Chinese peasants for this cause in his “Great Leap Forward”. Eight hundred and fifty thousand Vietnamese were sent to their graves in education camps. Many such atrocities happened in the name of socialism.

The United States' eleven years of aggression against countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and now Syria, have resulted in civilian deaths far in excess of military casualties. Then we have the tyranny of the terrorists too! There is no need to light much upon this topic because everybody knows. Most of the terrorist organizations in the world are Muslim. Islam is seen as a fascist and violent religion because of these people. There are other groups of terrorists too, like the Maoists and Naxals in India. The oppression on Muslims in countries like Burma and Myanmar is also well known. The religious bigotry between the Hindus and Muslims is a classic example. In 1984, more than four thousand Sikh men, women and children were slaughtered. Women were raped while their terrified families pleaded for mercy, little or none of which was shown. In 2002, Hindu fundamentalists carried out a genocidal ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Gujarat. Nearly twenty thousand Muslims were brutally killed. Over one hundred forty thousand were thrown out of their lands. Businesses and houses were burned. And thousands of women were gang raped and burned alive.

As long as we do not learn to rise above our animal instincts, we cannot call ourselves the best of creations. Indeed we have proved ourselves before God to be the meanest of all creations. Sigh!

“Surely, greater than the creation of the humans, is the creation of the heavens and the earth. But most people never know (what it implies).”

Holy Quran, Ch. 40, V. 57

(English rendition by Dr. Shabbir Ahmed)

How good is Christ University, Bangalore, esp. for a BSc degree?

It's been one year since I joined this college for a BSc course, and I will tell you my honest opinions about this college, because I want you to get your facts right and be careful lest you fall into a trap without enough information.

I am very passionate about physics and I had this dream of getting into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology there at the United States but it was too great an ambition for me and I could not realise this dream unless I first got an undergraduate degree from India, then maybe I thought I could apply for a graduate program there later on. That would be more affordable I thought.

(By the way, I became a fan of MIT after I watched some really awesome lectures by Prof. Walter Lewin from the MIT OpenCourseWare website. I highly recommend you to watch them.)

THE GREATEST MISTAKE I DID WAS BEING AWFULLY LESS INFORMED! You ought to do a lot of research before you join any college, which I did not do. I applied to a lot of colleges here at Bangalore, but when I entered the campus of Christ University, I was blinded by its awesome infrastructure and greenery. The campus was so well maintained, and as I went inside the Central Block in order to get the admission form, I was mesmerised by the looks of the walls, the lifts and the shining floor. I even liked the bathroom a lot. I wished in my heart and prayed that I should get admitted only in this college and nowhere else.

Even today I have positive feelings towards the campus and infrastructure of Christ University. There's everything: the Bird's Park, the gym and even a small kind of a mall inside Gourmet. And you have nice food courts too. I love that aspect of Christ University. Sit in the park under the shades after lunch and plug some music into your ears, and enjoy the fresh wind blowing at you. That's a nice feeling.

By the way I got admitted into St. Joseph's  college too, and I even attended one class there. But I din't like the classroom there, nor the campus. I din't even know there was an observatory in that college, and it was much better than Christ University in terms of science studies. I thought after all Christ is ranked as one of the top ten colleges in India and by the looks of it, it ought to be much better than this.

I was wrong. I made the dumbest decision of my life. First of all, there is no Physics honors here. You have to give equal weightage on all the three subjects (Physics, Math and Chemistry/Electronics). And it's a damn three years course which is in no ways equivalent to a US bachelor's degree.

See I'm fcuked up now!

I ought to have applied for an honors course in Bangalore University, if I had to stay here at all. They have this four years integrated BS course quite similar to that of IISc but much more easier to get into. I met two students taking this course a few months back, and I learned that they were doing a project in which they were trying to build a cyclotron under the guidance of their teacher and funded by the university because there's a lot of money going into it. That was so cool. Do you know what we do here at Christ University?

We come to class only for the sake of attendance and meeting our friends. That's all. Even most of my classmates are nerds basically. But don't you ever think they are intelligent intellectuals or something, because they are not. They mug up formulas and stuff, cram up all the notes fed by teachers for the sake of passing the semester, and may be getting good decent marks sometimes. But that is all they do, these goddamn slaves of teachers! I do not see education here. (I must tell you I have some exceptional friends though.)

And the teachers, I should tell you about them. The entire Physics department is full of shit people, hypocrites basically! There is only one exception to them I think. He never came to teach us Physics, but I found the passion in him, the craving for knowledge that defines a scientist. I like him. Apart from him, the others are just plain bull's shit, trust me. If you love Physics, for God's sake, never come here. You might end up losing your interest in Physics at all.

The Mathematics department is better though. They have a monopoly here in all things. And they offer you an honors course too. I have no complains against this department. (Mind you! There are exceptions in every damn thing in this world.)

I think apart from the department I am most interested in, the other ones such as humanities and management etc are really awesome. I only came across the English department because I have to learn this subject for the first four semesters, and I loved the teachers. They are just so awesome people, so passionate about their work and really wise educated beings who can inspire you to do something.

I think if you are doing anything besides science, I must recommend Christ University to you. (I don't take the responsibility though.)

By the way, I must tell you the Library here is really good. If you genuinely want some education, you find it here only.

This is my experience at Christ University after one year. Hoping to see better things from next semester.

Tipu

(Tipu, a 15 years old boy, walks home from school)

Tasnim: Tipu! Tipu! Wait...

Tipu (Turns back): Hey Tassy, whats up? :) Hi Brad. Whats up Jay?

(They continue walking)

Tasnim: Why did you do that today?

Tipu: Do what?

Jay: Mess with the teachers! It's not right.

Tipu: Oh! That history teacher? That fool does not understand me. Haha..

Tasnim: I know you are good in the natural sciences, no! Maybe the best of us, but that does not mean every other subject is nonsense. How can you call him a fool? Look at yourself. He's got a PhD. And you? How dare you compare? (Looks away, angry.)

Tipu (Laughs mockingly): Oh why, dint you see how he lost his nerves and started yelling at me when I was only trying to put some sense into him. Is that how a sane man behaves? He says legends of kings and stories of wars and the exact dates and all those stuffs of the past are necessary to understand the present. I remarked, let the dead past bury its dead, while... (interrupted)

Brad: I know sweetheart. You dont have to lecture again. I was there.

Tasnim: Why Tipu, at least study for exams' sake. You will fail if you stick to this attitude. Teachers are important.

Tipu (Smiles): Knowledge is.

Brad: No, wisdom is more important. That comes with experience. We are only children. Why dont you understand this? We are ignorant of many complex realities of life. Teachers are not to be ignored. They have the experience of life.

Tipu: That's a belief fed to us by these elderly blockheads. They have grown old. And that which you call experience is rust that has made them so resistant to new ideas and new attitudes. That way progress cannot come. Progress is a change – a goodly change. That comes with innovation and creative thinking. Tell me what's the point in remembering by heart the dates of history? You can always look them up in the internet.

Jay: O I second you Mr. Einstein, so exactly how are you going to bring the change? Proving E equals m c squared wrong? (Giggles)

Tasnim: You get passed with excellent marks if you have a good memory. Simple as that! :)

Brad: However there are clear reasons why we must respect our teachers, why we must try to learn from them as much as we can. At this age, we cannot do anything on our own. I think on some issues we are trying to be oversmart.

(Tipu stops walking. Looks into Brad's eyes.)

Tipu (unhappy): Show me ample reasons if you think we are being oversmart. Let me also see if we are indeed. We dont have to worry though. Truth always stands clear from error. We only need to have a clear unbiased unprejudiced scientific mind.

Tasnim (pulling on Tipu's hands): Oh common Tipu!

Tipu: I am sorry.

(Tipu resumes walking)

Tipu: I do not say I am always right. To err is human. But what I say is, this applies to them as well. They are not some kind of gods from heaven.

Brad: Yeah. But we are arrogant in our understanding and interpretation. Sort of disrespecting the intellect of the greybeards. I dont like that.

Tipu (smiles): “Blind respect for authority is the worst enemy of truth.” Einstein.

Jay: Dont you respect Einstein, even though his theory is flawed at some point? Does not imply that he is a complete old fool.

Brad: Yeah!

Tipu: I dont care about Einstein. What matters me is his ideas. I judge his works, not his person. Not blind respect, but recognition for what is worthy in him. Same applies to everybody else.

Though his theories have no flaws to correct you. ;)

Brad: Yeah. So for one flaw, will you disregard all of his claims and theories? No. You are obtuse and you dont wish to learn and disregard things which does not suit you.

Tasnim (chuckles): Right.

Jay: Point! :D

Tipu (embarrassed): If his claims and theories are not related to this flaw or are not derived from the flaw, they are a separate world, and I have no reasons to reject them adamantly. Anyway, the greybeards with their heavy heads are not smart enough to be human. PS If they have something good in them, they get their due respect.

Brad: You have ingrained hatred for authority and greybeards which has nothing to do with their credibility. You are inclined towards rebellion. At times, unnecessary! Disregarding someone unfit to be humans is a contempt which I feel displays vanity. Brother, do respect them. Because you have a clear perspective on things, it's your responsibility to spread it, not picking up fights with greybeards just 'cause they cant dye their beard black, and understand the different perspective you so ardently follow.

Tipu: I hate no man. But I cannot stand... (interrupted)

Tasnim (with gravity): Enough is enough! Here Tipu, you have reached home. Go get some sleep. For God's sake do the homeworks today. Bye. See you tomorrow.

(Tipu enters gate. Friends leave. End of scene.)