Sunday, April 24, 2005

Richard Parker et al

I just finished reading Life of Pi. In one word, exhilarating. Okay, it could be exhilarating because I was racing to finish it to be in time for dinner and to not leave it unfinished. I love the ending. I love the two Japanese men. It was probably the funniest part of the whole book.

During the interview and throughout the book, Pi talks about God being apparent through his creation and the wonder and mystery of it all. I still don't know (very naive of me i guess) whether the story is truely true or is pure fiction, (still remember thinking midway through the book - 'This better be true or else!'), I'm now going just by Pi's words on God and nature. Sure, the story is incredulous yet as Pi writes, simply because you didn't see it and
cannot picture it in your imagination, doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

Pi is someone enamoured by all three faiths, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and somewhere during the beginning of the book quotes from the Qur'an "And indeed, there are signs for those who reflect". These verses come up again and again, in different forms in th Qur'an.

I was reading a book called 'The Miracle in the Bee' the other day, a book for children, designed to inculcate that bit of curiosity that makes you wonder at things around you ...

Did you know that a hive is simulatneously built by a a large number of bees together? That the hexagonal units in the hive by bees executing perfect 120 degree turns? That if you were to try drawing hexagonal units like those of a hive on a piece of paper starting from two different points, it would be extremely difficult for them to meet at the proper joint? Yet that a hive is built by a number of bees, starting simultaneously from different points, yet never fails to achieve perfect hexagonal symmetry, without any communication between the bees. If it's programmed into them, then surely the Programmer must be a great designer?

* * *

Do read the book, even if you don't like my interpretation. Janna
(http://ottergreen.blogspot.com) , whose blog I discovered accidentally through google loved it too. The description of her blog at different times had these lines that intrigued me,
I recognized them after reading the book.

-If you're feeling thirsty, suck a button.
-Do your uncle's bonsai plants eat meat?

10 comments:

VM said...

The other day, when I was at a bookstore, I picked up the book too, the plot seemed interesting.

Now that you recommend it as well, I'll get a copy asap.

Ent said...

heh it's fine. really glad there are females out there who agree as well!
you are somewhat of a rarity ms. cat

manuscrypts said...

...but still wondering about those last two lines :D

Saad F'akhtar said...

got here from ur comment on tree-elf. just put a link to one of your posts on my blog. hope u dont mind. =)

mythalez said...

Aah ... Multi-Agent Systems ...
They jus rock :D

VM said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
manuscrypts said...

hey, please drop by for just a second..:)

Anonymous said...

i guess bees communicated by dancing...in that case the symmetry seems all the more intriguing ...whew

imagine we humans doing a group discussion on wheather females rule the world or not and mode of communication be dancing instead of words ...lol

Argentyne said...

bhim ... i think you should :)

tree-elf .. really? Methinks not :). Why not check 'my-lair.blogspot.com'

Manu ... read it!

Saad, you're welcome to and thanks! :)

Dodo, yeah :), like swarm intelligence no? :-s

Burf .. who you? Why do you think they communicate through dancing? :-/

Anonymous said...

hi, am burf @ burfi.blogspot :D

dont u know, actually the mode of communication for bees is their flying pattern

:D

is my comment now making any sense .. lol