Twelve Monkeys

In the movie Twelve Monkeys, the hero (Bruce Willis) faces a strange contortion of fate. He is sent from the future to investigate & prevent a deadly viral outbreak which killed a large part of the humanity. He comes back in time, and finds himself in a looney bin. Here, he shares with his lunatic genius fellow inmate (Brad Pitt) his secret: he is from the future. He is here to investigate the story of the twelve monkeys which were the source of a virus.

Brad Pitt hooks on to that idea. As the movie unrolls, Bruce Willis discovers that it was indeed this lunatic who went on to derive the virus from the monkeys and break it loose. The irony? He got that idea from Bruce Willis' character who traveled back in time.

Isn't this the irony of foreknowledge? Of preimagining? Of knowing things that will be?

Foreknowledge is troubling. Sometimes I feel like the writer who writes a detailed script in her head. It's strange to see that script being acted out in real life, as it often does, to a great degree of accuracy.

One, it gives a thick, black feeling of surging power. Second, it makes me weak in the face of my own knowledge. There must be a control. But where? Is this knowledge a picture that realizes itself? Or do we get images of what is bound to be?

Sometimes I am very afraid of saying things that I know will happen for the fear that I am the source for initiating that idea. It is one of those twisted enigmas of life that we all deal with at some level. It is better to remain on the safe side and share not the idea.

For it makes me afraid of its realization. I think.... ugh, I will not discuss what I just thought.

///Silence.

Stupid Muslim

Have I written this before? Sometimes all I wish these days is to be a stupid Muslim. You know, the kind who follows without question. What was the meaning of the word Islam again? Aye, submission. Submission without question. Total, complete submission.

Well, honestly, I've always believed in God though I sometimes fashionably call myself agnostic. I am not agnostic; I have only tried to question/ prove/ resolve the enigmas of my faith. If that looks a bit like agnosticism, it may be because it is at least far removed from stupid Muslim-ism. Which I now pine for.

You know it's very - what shall I say? - intellectual to do things like determine how the universe was born, and whether it's actually multiverse. Artists and writers also worry about parallel universes. Did the universe explode and grow itself, or was there something before it? Who could have started all this, or have we just taken a form and substance of our own? Was it evolution or creation (by the way, I think both theories are true at once)? Is there any theory which can further befuddle the whole humanity about whether there is a God and what's the God's gender?

Is Dan Brown all factual in Da Vinci Code? And whether there's actually some sort of female goddess out there? Will science bow to religion, or religion give in to science?

A whole lot of issues for the humanity.

But honestly, what will these theories - proved or unproved - do? After all, it doesn't hurt to treat your family well. Or to clear a stone away from the path of the people. Or to help the needy. Or "have faith" in the time of distress. Call it think positive. Call it thinking about the future. By another name, it's called having faith. All these things make pretty common sense.

So what care I whether the universe is expanding or shrinking?

I just want to be stupid.

Applause!

The first performance/exam at the end of the first semester of the third group of the first batch of the Academy went great, thought the audience. Even Zia Mohyeddin applauded. He pulled the group aside after the performance, and said, "Thank you!" I was glad everyone was happy and they responsded overwhelmingly positively. But, ugh, I expect much better theater. I don't know, I didn't hear myself errupting in applause inside. Very me, me, me to say this, - but I really did amazingly better theater in school more than a decade ago. Do we really decline mentally after school? Eh?

Still, I enjoyed the fact that our first endeavour was appreciated. I would have been mortified had it not turned out that good.

I was glad only that my mind was there, and intact. Thanks to memory, I remembered the good lesson, "No matter what the circumstances, you can!" After a series of strange, unsettling events one after another, I am glad that I can. I do. Actually, I enjoy the thrill of creating my own reality. Someone up there really was acting!

This is where we'd rather be

For K.



Taken with thanks from meanwhile, here in france.... Thanks, Ruth/Julian!

Just when I came across this bicycle resting against a row of lovely poppies, which are perhaps my favorite flowers, we had been dreaming of a place like this - rustic, serene, and idyllic. Serendipity led me to this image, and I said, Aha! This is what I was looking for. Goose bumps of excitement erupted on my neck, and I thought, oh, this is where I'd rather be. This is where we'd rather be.

Time travel has fascinated many of us, and I am not exception. But why hadn't it crossed our mind to invite a future traveler in time back to our home, right now? Amal Dorai of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) thought of just that.

He's invited any one from the future to a Time Traveler Convention - if they have a cure for cancer, a home on Mars, or anything to prove they really are back from the future!

Location: MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) East Campus Courtyard (42:21:36.025 degrees north, 71:05:16.332 degrees west)
Date: Saturday, May 07, 2005
Time: 10 P.M. sharp for the time travelers

I can't wait to hear about any guest who turns up!

Note: First published on NEXT> by Ramla.