Looks like I made it to Post 2 of The Week That Went By.
As a recap, a few lines from the first post to explain what it is
I have been thinking of journalling for sometime now. Mostly as a means to pause and reflect back on the week that went by — things I read and listened to, people I met, conversations I had.
…some of these could seem pretty self-indulgent. That is the nature of journaling, really.
I am still not sure how sustained I will be, but, hey! at least here is a second one.
The Alt Gym Playlist
I don’t have a curated workout playlist. I just pick from what I might have discovered recently, and get on with it.
It has to be music though, and not podcasts or audiobooks. I cannot absorb much while working out. I know some who do, but I am not sure how much gets retained. Humans are bad at multitasking.
We maintain the illusion of multitasking. What we are really doing is alternating between tasks.
Yesterday at the gym, I swapped the Beast Mode Workout Mix for a Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Playlist. I had been listening to it the evening before, and continued on with it.
This triggered an entirely different cadence to the morning. It felt like I was ambling through a narrow lane of a sleepy old town, and not through a sweat laced, hormone fueled room of rods and metal.
I eased into my workout with a lazy warm-up. But as I got down to squat, I could sense my body syncing to the slow lilts of the vocals playing in my earphones. My squats became slower. My regular weight load started feeling heavier. I stuck with Bade Ghulam Ali’s Thumri through the session.
The post-workout bump of mental clarity got me thinking.
Was there merit in playing the opposite of a typical workout playlist? Could picking the right song add an extra few virtual Kgs to the weight load?
I mean, running to Ab Tu Bhaag Milkha would be easier. But could running to Yeh Kagaz Ki Kashti be more effective?
While the body is primed to stress the muscles, the music is nudging it to push back on an armchair and sip freshly brewed coffee. There is a body-to-music dissonance. It’s like being pulled in opposite directions.
In effect, generating greater resistance per workout minute.
Therefore, a more effective workout!
The last few paragraphs are likely utter nonsense. But staying true to the promise of The Week That Went By, I am keeping things self-indulgent.
For a few seconds, in between sets, I started humming Yaad Piya Ki Aye. The lady bench-pressing next to me seemed outraged.
Pale Blue Dot
Last Week NASA reported that Voyager 1 has been glitching. It’s returning incoherent signals, and that we might lose it.
There was a lump in my throat when I read this.
For those who haven’t concerned themselves with matters beyond earth — Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are twin space probes (unmanned robotic spacecraft) launched by NASA in 1977. They were launched to explore the depths of our solar system and beyond.
The probes were meant to glide around our solar system for about 12 years.
It’s been 46 years, and remarkably, Voyager 1 (and 2) are still relaying signals from deep space.
Which means — there is a piece of metal made with human hands floating 24 billion kms away, far beyond our solar system, into interstellar space. Still sending back delightful stories about distance worlds.
As it were, Voyager 1 had cameras installed on it.
On 14th Feb 1990, about 13 years into its journey, Voyager 1 relayed a picture of earth from 6 billion kms away.
Earth, as a pale blue dot.
Our planet barely occupies a pixel in this picture.
Everything that we have ever known or experienced has happened in that tiny pixel.
The mission team had installed the cameras with the aim to click earth from such distance. They were aware that earth would show just as a blur in the image. In fact, that is precisely why they did it.
To quote NASA, they “wanted humanity to see Earth’s vulnerability and that our home world is just a tiny, fragile speck in the cosmic ocean.”
The image is more philosophy than science.
Carl Sagan, the astrophysicist, who was one of the collaborators in the Voyager missions wrote
“Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us, a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”.
Carl Sagan is one of my heroes. In my who would you invite to your dinner party, living or dead list, he’d be amongst the first few.
There are few things as captivating as hearing Carl Sagan speak. I remember the first time I watched Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, the 13-Part TV series. Carl Sagan was the writer and presenter of the show. I was enthralled by the poetry and eloquence of Sagan’s script and speech.
Sagan had a gift to assimilate the vastness of the themes he explored (universe-sized literally) into pithy sentences and precise aphorisms.
Listen to him talk about the Pale Blue Dot in this 3 Minute Video
Or watch this clip from the show, just because it’s so refreshing to hear him.
Cosmos had an analogy of how there were more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on earth. In fact, about 10,000 stars for each grain of sand!
The human mind is not even prepared to grasp such large numbers and what they mean. When I say, the Voyager has travelled 24 billion kms into space, what does that even mean?
I am going on a beach vacation this weekend. Every time I am at a beach, the horizon in front, clear blue sky above, and the sand beneath, I am reminded of this analogy. Call it a talisman, a hack, or pure escapism, but I try and wiggle out of difficult thoughts by saying to myself: Grain of sand - Universe doesn’t care - Don’t take anything too seriously.
Voyager 1’s mission might be coming to an end. For us earthians it feels a bit personal. A part of us, that we created, carrying our message to the universe is dying.
Losing it would mean losing a milestone of human achievement, and a reminder of human insignificance, all at once.
That was the week that went by.
See you soon!
Back when I was young and capable of working out, I had the same problem. I can elliptical with a podcast, but run I cannot. It has to be my dinchak playlist with absolute crass songs all over. Now that you have shared the way you like playlist for things and that you like the endless solar system, may I suggest one thing?
1. When you do go to the beach this weekend, play this album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_dhtb13-8 It is based on a comic strip that is based in somewhat the area you are interested in, yet it adapts so well to beach listening because isn't it true that (hindi coming up) ulta kar ke dekh sakey to, ambar bhi hai, gehri khaai. No difference in solar system or the vastness of ocean.
Thank God you made it to second week. I cannot wait to hear more.
Go Go Go Go!