Zafar Ansari

Engineer, wannabe philosopher, nerd

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Thinking about ‘Interstellar'


Cooper’s haunted looks sear through. He looks so alone. Out cold inside a black hole, he yearns, and remembers. It is his daughter–back on Earth that he had left with a promise. A promise he now knows he can’t keep. He has failed.

******


This is a film not just about parenthood. It is anthropological in its canvas. Humankind is struggling to survive, and we see all of our species’ defining features here. It is about humanity’s best and worst. ‘Mann’ lies to ensure his survival. Cooper braves a black hole to send Brand on her way, wryly quoting the Newton’s third law, “The only way humans have ever figured out of getting somewhere is to leave something behind.” Brand still loves someone who she hasn’t seen in decades, and is pulled light years towards him. We may be three dimensional beings, but ‘love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and...

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Death of a Tear

[The dead author watches his last tear.]

Today I met a tear on its way,
Meandering past my half-closed eyelash.
It glanced at me with tight-lipped heat,
Murmuring of loss and tragedies.

Slowly it waded across my cheek,
Stopping to ponder on wrongs and misdeeds.
I looked into its eyes to know how it came about so,
But all I could see was my own dismembered soul.

At last as it hung at the edge of my chin,
The dusty earth pulling it along,
It began to quieten down a bit;
And remember some happy moments bygone.

Moments with someone under a crimson sky,
Mindless banter about failed affairs;
Existential angst and broken hearts,
Missed kisses and silent goodbyes.

Much it forgot, and also why it was born,
Living in my eye, though, it had seen all.
Escaped now to the dry shore of my life,
The world, to it, was an inert observation.

As...

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Is beauty truth and truth beauty?

In my Ayn Rand influenced adolescence, I used to mull over all idealistic musings that I came across. One of my favorites was John Keats‘s 'beauty is truth, truth beauty’, which I almost internalized. When I was recently reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, I came across a notion which formed the basis of Jobs’ personality- that beauty and perfection have a common origin - love. So when I was recently reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, it was natural for me to question a notion which formed the basis of Jobs’ personality; namely beauty and perfection have a common origin - love.But if love causes beauty, then going by what Keats said, it must also reveal a truth. This article is going to be on that apparent contradiction. This article has been written to understand more of this hypothesis and its consequences.

Jobs always...

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