19 October 2020

Beauty in assymetry

Fairly unique patterns in each of the petals (including two that are completely bland). This exact set of pattern is present in each and every flower. I have no idea what the name of the flower is. Saw this planted in a pot while pacing up and down on a phone call outside the place where I work…

(Update: Later learned from Sharmila that this is a Pansy)

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17 October 2020

Weekend decompression: Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat!

This one is from Mirza Ghalib:

Yeh na thi hamari qismat, ke wisaal-e-yaar hota
Agar aur jeete rehtey, yehi intezaar hota.

Tere waade par jeeye hum to, yeh jaan jhoot jaana
Ke khushi se mar na jaate, agar aitbaar hota

Koi meray dil se poochhey, tere teer-e-neemkash ko
Yeh khalish kahan se hoti, jo jigar ke paar hota

Kahoon kisse main ke kya hai, shab-e-gham buri balaa hai
Mujhe kya bura tha marna, agar ek baar hota

Huye mar ke hum jo ruswa, huye kyun ka gharq-e-dariya
Na kabhi janaaza uth ta, na kahin mazaar hota

Yeh masaael-e-tasavvuf, yeh tera bayaan Ghalib
Tujhe hum Wali samajhte, jo na badaa khwar hota  

The translation is from Khuswant Singh. Other than the lines I marked with ##. Those two lines were not there in the version Khuswant translated.

To be united with the beloved was not writ in my fate,
Had I lived any longer, it would have been the same long wait.

I lived on your promises, I knew they were not true,
Would not I have died of joy had I believed in you?

Ask my heart about the pain of love and it will tell you
The half-drawn bow’s the assassin, not the arrow that pierces through.

To whom can I speak of sorrows that come with the fading of light?
Death would be welcome, if it did not stand at my door every night.

##Disgraced as I shall be in death, why not I drown in the sea?
##Fated, as I am to not have a funeral, nor a tomb erected for me. 

Your concern with mystic problems, Ghalib, your language is such
You could have passed off for a saint, had you not drunk so much.

Category: Music/Poetry | 1 Comment on Weekend decompression: Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat!
17 October 2020

Second cousin once removed? Or is it the other way round?

The other night, Avi, Sharmila and I were discussing what would your mom’s aunt’s daughter be to you. (See here). As I had explained to them that would be first cousin once removed.

Some time back, curiosity had gotten the better of me in terms of what are the rules of this nomenclature. Turns out there are some fairly nifty rules. The biggest shock I had was that generations way before you can also be your cousin! I always thought cousins are at your own generation or maybe below your generation.

The following chart (thanks to Alice Ramsay) is a neat way to picture it in your mind. If you are more of a rules based person (which is the way I think), this is what I have boiled it down to…

Let say you are trying to find the relationship of person A to you.
Keep traversing up the tree (your parent, A’s parent) till you find a common ancestor.
Let’s say you had to jump “x” steps and A had to jump “y” steps.
Take the minimum of x and y. Let’s say it is “w” (w=x or w=y). Take (w-1)

If (w-1) is at least 1, then A is your (w-1)th cousin. Now take the difference in your generations – which is (x-y). The absolute value is the difference in your generations. Let’ say, that is “d” (x-y=d).

Then A is your (w-1)th cousin, “d” times removed!!

So to calculate your mom’s aunt’s daughter… You have to jump to your mom’s mom’s mom to find a common ancestor. And the other person has to go mom’s mom to get to the same point. Minimum of 3 and 2 is 2. 2-1=1. So the person is your first cousin. Now you had to jump three times to get there and she had to jump twice. Which means the difference in generation is one. (3-2 = 1)

So, she is your first cousin, once removed.

In short, jump from either side till you get a common ancestors. The minimum value in jumps less one is the “what”-eth cousin. The difference in the jumps is the “how much” removed.

What if (w-1) was not at least 1? Then they are siblings (at same generation level) or uncles/aunts at higher generation and nephews/nieces for lower generation. For every generation jump you go Great, Great Grand, Great Great Grand, 3rd Great Grand and so on.

Of course if the jump up and down goes thru you (all points are common ancestor/descendants) then they are your child or parent – with the same Great, Great Grand, Great Great Grand, 3rd Great Grand rule…,

See if the picture makes it easy..

Category: Musings | 3 Comments on Second cousin once removed? Or is it the other way round?