Thoughts Out of the Blue

My post on fractals reminded me of a couple of lines from one of Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme (of The Bone Collector fame) books, called 'The Vanished Man', which I'd jotted down at the time:

She said, 'You know, I'm not sure there is much reality.'
He frowned, not getting her meaning.
'Isn't most of our lives an illusion?' she continued.
'How's that?'
'Well, everything in the past is memory, right?'
'True.'
'And everything in the future is imagination. Those're both illusions - memories are unreliable and we just speculate about the future. The only thing that's completely real is the one instant of the present - and that's constantly changing from imagination to a memory. So, see? Most of our life's illusory.'

I found the whole dialogue rather fascinating, and also connected to the concept of self-similarity in fractals. A tad philosophical, perhaps, but don't you sometimes think a moment is exactly like a day, and a day like a month etc (in terms of ups and downs, events, resolutions, flashes of brilliance etc) ?

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Thinking out aloud...why is it easier to chat (in the IM sense of the word) to somebody than to talk to him/her in person, or even on the phone? I've often found myself typing out something into the chat window, and then do a double-take - did I really divulge THAT about myself ? I mean, isn't it peculiar that I know some of the most personal details of people who, in many cases, I haven't even met yet?

I figure that there's something quietly reassuring about the anonymity of that innocuous little chat window on the taskbar that makes us divulge our insecurities, small fears, aspirations and other such private details. In fact, I even have friends who I do meet once a month or so, but we find ourselves unable to talk with the semblance of intimacy that the small window somehow bestowed. Strange, but true.

I wonder about older generations - obviously they never had the same problem, but then who did they confide in? Did they find it any easier to reveal whole pieces of themselves to friends/relatives?

As you can see, I have a lot of questions, but not many answers !

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What's the common factor between Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan, Ilayaraja, A.R.Rahman, R.D.Burman and Zakhir Hussain?

Yeah, I know they are all geniuses - what else?

They are all SHORT. In fact, even Einstein and Mozart were vertically challenged, if I am correct. Wonder what's the connection here !! In fact, I have often noticed that A.R.Rahman and SRT even have similar high-pitched, squeaky voices and those famous modest shrugs ;).

I have always been unhappy about the fact that I could never claim that I was 6'feet tall (I stand somewhere between 5'11 and 6'feet, to my un-ending regret), but to someone clutching at straws, I guess the height-genius quotient correlation is some consolation !!