Mayank Chhaya Daily

Anal attention to penal system

A rattan used for whipping approximately looks like this

Countries pay anal attention to details while creating their penal system.*

The high profile Indian editor Tarun Tejpal, currently in prison on charges of rape, has now been booked for possessing a mobile phone inside the prison in Goa. Mobile phones are a prohibited article under the Indian Prisons Act of 1894. Like many laws in India this one too dates back to the colonial British times.

Out of morbid curiosity I decided to read the act because what is more uplifting than reading a prison act early morning? Like all acts, once you get past the painfully legalistic language, this one too gives you a glimpse inside the minds of those who seek to rule. I was particularly struck by this very precise provision in the act which prescribes punishment for possession of a prohibited article.

“Whipping shall be inflicted with a light ratan** not less than half an inch in diameter on the buttocks, and in case of prisoners under the age of sixteen it shall be inflicted, in the way of school discipline, with a lighter ratan.”

The attention to detail is depressing. The Englishman/men who would have originally drafted this would have thought about everything, including the possibility a light rattan smaller than half an inch in diameter might break or bend or become tattered when repeatedly used against the colonized buttocks. I am fairly certain the British would have conducted experiments with rattans of different diameters against an object approximating human buttocks to ensure at what precise diameter the cane breaks or bends.

The reason why the provision prescribes punishment “in the way of school discipline, with a lighter ratan” is because corporal punishment was often a part of the British education system.

It is not my suggestion that Tejpal’s buttocks be introduced to a light rattan no less than half an inch in diameter although his accuser may not mind that too much. The reason why Tejpal and others might allegedly possess inside the prison is because there is corruption in the prison system that willfully lets such articles slip in for a consideration.

From Tejpal’s point of view, being accused of illegal possession does not necessarily make things any worse than they already are. He is facing rape charges and, if found guilty, getting whipped on the buttocks would seem like a distraction.

* This sentence is fraught with Freudian possibilities. It was born fully formed in my mind as I began writing the post.

** The more widely accepted spelling of ratan is rattan but the British used one ‘t’ which of course does not reduce the severity of whipping.

I do fake life rather well

Mist by MC

Two somewhat weird ideas have preoccupied me this morning simultaneously. One is about a condition that afflicts me and the other is a tad broader and more philosophical.

It has taken me over three decades of adulthood to figure out my fundamental affliction. I have what I call free floating indifference.

It is an exceptionally rare congenital condition that is practically impossible to diagnose by anyone other than those who have it. It is not transmittable because there is nothing to transmit. Those who come in contact can only infer it much after they experience it. It leaves a subtle and unpleasant  aftertaste.

My free floating indifference chooses its target randomly. I do not have any control on whom to be indifferent to and when and why. It can set in any time in the middle of an interaction. Since I am the host I can feel its onset and have to try hard to ensure that the person or persons I am interacting with does not catch on that I am in the midst of an episode.

There is no cure for this condition. It has no identifiable or quantifiable manifestation except what the host vaguely discerns. As someone who has it I can tell you that it is a strangely liberating affliction that cushions one from the buffeting mundaneness of life. There is no expression that encapsulates this condition but the one that comes the nearest to describing it would be “So what?” I prefer “It means nothing.”

The second idea that closely followed free floating indifference was about life generally. I have always thought my life is a performance art where the largely indifferent audience starts heckling me in the first five minutes and screaming for refund.

One has no genuine response to most things in life; so one has to confect it or manufacture it. It is indeed a contrivance most of the time with enough care having gone in to ensure that the recipient of that contrivance does not get wise to it. So far I have not come across anyone who could tell that my response or reaction to life’s situations was bereft of any genuineness. I do fake life rather well.

This is beginning to sound strange just about now. It is as good a time as any to end it.

The cruelly brilliant Jan van Eyck

Lucca Madonna by Jan van Eyck, C. 1437

In continuing my frequent visits to the Google Art Project, this morning I have discovered a painter of almost cruelly brilliant attention to details. It is unsettling to look at any corner of the Flemish master painter Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) because he produces details which are breathtaking.

You may take any work by van Eyck as displayed on the Google Art Project and zoom in on any part and you would find the man’s unforgivable genius to capture textures, light and colors. For a pathetic poseur in the art world like me painters such as van Eyck deliver a walloping reality check.

I have chosen to look at his ‘Lucca Madonna’ of circa 1437 for the purposes of this post. Just this one painting could forever establish van Eyck as a master. That he has many others is merely reaffirmation of his mastery. He is at once a very objective and yet a very subjective painter in that he gets all the details accurately and but in putting them together he creates a very subjective perspective. (If that does not make any sense, well, let it not).

A lot has been said about van Eyck’s preternatural ability to capture the play of light and its reflections even in the smallest corners of his paintings. I zoomed in on what seems like a brass bowl in the alcove on the left of Madonna to confirm that observation. Quite apart from the extraordinary accuracy of the way light reflects in the water in the bowl as well as on its interior wall, I was also struck by the way he captures it in the water droplets. This talent is scary in its quality.

It was while looking at the brass bowl that I thought of a similar brass bowl sitting on my desk. It is my grandfather’s legacy and is perhaps about 100 years old. It is of a similar size and feel. So I filled it up with water and took a picture to juxtapose it with the one in the painting. In my case the light source is right above the bowl and in van Eyck’s case it is perhaps at a 45 degree angle from the window to its left. Notice how van Eyck has captured the water and compare it with my photograph.

Speaking of his ability to distinguish between the ways light reflects off of different surfaces, see the detail above. You can almost touch the difference between the way light goes through the bottle/decanter and the way it bounces off the candle stand. One can even see the window in the reflection on the bottle.

Looking at the baby in Madonna’s lap, one cannot but notice the folds in its skin where her hand is supporting it.

And finally, the way Madonna’s spectacular pearl and jewel encrusted red robe folds and falls. Jan van Eyck even manages to distinguish between the way light might reflect on a pearl and a gemstone.

This is not just artistry. It is something else.

As an experiment, immediately after studying this piece so closely I checked out some of my own digital “artworks” and instantly puked. My keyboard is making a slushy sound as I conclude this post.

Get off your cushioned asses and support Gaon Connection

The latest issue of Gaon Connection

It is customary for urban consumers of media content of a certain background to rue the near total dominance of urban news in India. These well-meaning but eventually ineffectual urbanites pop up from time to time on various platforms such as Google Hangout to state the obvious, the obvious being that rural news just does not make the cut in the frenziedly corporatized broadcast and print media.

Of course, this is a valid concern but for it to rise to the level of actually transforming the media landscape so heavily skewed in favor of urban preoccupations people of means and consequence need to start putting their money where their mouth is.

One shining example where people of means and consequence can put their money is dear friend and fellow journalist Neelesh Misra’s rural newspaper Gaon Connection. I have written about the weekly in Hindi before and I write again because after over a year of outstanding rural journalism in the hinterland of the country’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh, Neelesh and his stellar team still have to struggle to ensure that things do not suddenly unravel.

As an occasional columnist for the paper I want to again reach out to whoever is reading this blog to pay attention. At a time when multibillion rupee broadcast media companies in Delhi and Mumbai are being coopted by corporate moneybags to do their bidding it is particularly important that ventures such as Gaon Connection are given the support they so eminently deserve.

As Neelesh and his team get ready to prepare a rural news show culled from their own Gaon Connection reportage for India’s state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan, there is a great opportunity for people of means to reach out and sponsor the show.

It is to the credit of Neelesh and his team, including his father Dr. S B Misra who is the editor-in-chief, that Gaon Connection has stayed afloat in the face of relentless existential challenges. The challenge for the team is to court funding even while staying true their original mandate of complete editorial independence. Of course, that is a conflict as old as the media themselves and not unique to Neelesh and his team. Now that they have managed to sustain the newspaper for a year and make considerable impact it could be easier than before to get funding with relatively few strings attached.

The rural television show produced by serious professionals has great ratings as well as content potential. If the Gaon Connection team’s record so far is any measure, I think they can produce outstanding television spun off from the very content they report week after week.

So my appeal to those who state the obvious about how urban centric the media has become would be to get off their cushioned asses and start supporting ventures such as Gaon Connection. You don’t invitation. You need inspiration.

Enroll at World Science U

Science in general and physics in particular are nothing if not spectacular. They are so full of visual possibilities and yet traditional universities work assiduously to make it drab and dense.

Studying physics and chemistry at the university level in the late 1970s along with my childhood friend Paresh Pandya we used to frequently talk about what it would be to make physics like a visual drama and how it would transform our understanding of it.

Our professors, albeit well-meaning, were staggering bores when it came to teaching physics and chemistry. More often than not their default expression could be described as “WTF” decades before the expression was coined; as in “WTF are you doing here?”

They could not care less that physics and chemistry—or for that matter most branches of the sciences—are fraught with dramatic visual representation. It is from this standpoint that I am thrilled to enroll in the well-known theoretical physicist Brian Greene’s highly promising World Science University. It is an entirely free online university that anyone with any or no understanding of science can join and hope to strengthen one’s understanding about the universe and what animates it.

World Science U is a terrific idea whose time has more than come. With an astonishing convergence of digital and communication technologies the world of online virtual education stands completely transformed. These are indeed magical times and only those with no imagination would fail to see that.

While a surly professor scratching the surface of the blackboard with a frequently breaking chalk had its purpose and time, that purpose and time are now long over. It is absolutely essential that broadband is made a basic human right around the world so that everyone everywhere can hope to be part of this spectacular revolution.

Even if you discount that I am a sucker for science and visuals, I think World Science U should be made a required viewing for humanity generally. One understands that as a percentage of the global population very few are inclined to pursue science as a career but it is important to be aware of the basic elements of a truly mysterious universe that we all are a part of. Of course, there is no punishment for living life utterly clueless. I am sure there is some peculiar fun there too but that is not the life I have chosen. Hence I have enrolled at World Science U.

As an aside let me share this true blue nerd funny joke that Paresh sent me.

Q: Why are quantum physicists so poor at sex?

A: Because when they find the position, they can't find the momentum, and when they have the momentum, they can't find the position.

I refuse to explain that.

‘I was living life happily absorbed in my own rhythm…and then you met me’

 

Yesterday afternoon, as happens frequently with me, a random song came bursting out of some obscure recess of my mind. It was “Main akela apni dhun mein magan zindgi ka maza liye ja raha ke tum mil gaye” (I was living life happily absorbed in my own rhythm…and then you met me) by the very versatile Amit Khanna from the 1980 film ‘Man Pasand’, a Hindi remake of ‘My Fair Lady.’

Amit did a lovely job of capturing the mood of the original ‘I have grown accustomed to her face’ and managed to fuse it with the quintessence of conflicted Indian romance.

Amit’s line “Tumhare kadamon ki aahat, tumhare aankho ki masti, tumhare balon ki khushboo, Inse mujhe kya hai hansil? Fir bhi yeh hai meri aadat mein shamil” (The sound of your approaching footsteps, the vivacity in your eyes, the fragrance of your hair, What do I have to gain from those? But I am still accustomed to them). The expression “Inse mujhe kya hai hansil? Fir bhi yeh hai meri aadat mein shamil” is deft and light.

‘My Fair Lady’ remains one of my most cherished films, especially Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins was outstanding. The masculine grandiosity of the protagonist occasionally strained by his barely hidden vulnerability was brilliantly captured by Harrison. To Dev Anand’s credit he did his best to bring it alive. I think in many scenes Anand appeared as if it was a character after his heart, particularly in the song above. He was reflective and indignant simultaneously about his feelings for the young woman (Tina Munim) whom he picked up from the grimy underbelly of the city and polished her up.

Amit Khanna

Directed by Basu Chaterjee and produced by Amit, the film also featured Girish Karnad as Anand’s sidekick in the same vein as Wilfrid Hyde-White in the original. Of course, there is no comparison between the two films in terms of their quality. Higgins is such a deeply English male of a certain high British class that it is hard to give him a different ethnic context.

Interestingly, the only reason why I remember ‘Man Pasand’ is this particular song written by Amit and composed by Rajesh Roshan. One always unreservedly admired Devsaab but as a 19-year-old in 1980 (he was 54) to me he seemed particularly cool in this song; even when kicks that imaginary can (Cue 1.53).

From left, Vijay Anand, Dev Anand, Amit Khanna

I have known Amit for close to 30 years. He has perhaps been the most articulate spokesman on behalf of the Hindi film industry. A man of diverse talents as a writer, lyricist, producer and generally someone who knows the industry inside out, I intend doing a detailed interview with him one of these days.

Quantifying “the Dalai Lama effect”

Joshua Keating’s blog on Slate alerted me to an interesting paper that actually quantifies “the Dalai Lama effect”. The 2010 paper by Andreas Fuchs and Nils-Hendrik Klann of the University of Göttingen attempts to answer the question whether China’s foaming rage every time a country engages the Dalai Lama actually leads to any measurable ill effects in bilateral relations. The answer is yes but the effect is rather limited and short-lived.

The paper makes for a compelling reading simply because Fuchs and Klann look at very precise questions surrounding the Dalai Lama visits. I have been interested in this subject for obvious reasons. My comment yesterday for the IANS wire was noticed in some media quarters in the U.S., especially my construct “A jade diplomatic dance.”

“Does China carry out its threats to sanction non-compliant trading partners or does the emerging economy simply play with its targets’ fears? Our empirical results confirm the existence of a negative effect of Dalai Lama receptions at the highest level on exports to China for the Hu Jintao era (2002-2008). Meetings of a head of state or head of government with the Dalai Lama lead to a reduction of exports to China by 8.1% or 16.9% on average, depending on the estimation technique used. This effect is mainly driven by reduced exports
of machinery and transport equipment and it disappears in the second year after a meeting took place,” the authors say.

This is by far the clearest measure of the “the Dalai Lama effect” I have seen. As far as I know this is perhaps the only paper of its kind that looks at the facts behind the rhetoric.

“Most sanctions are costly to the country that imposes them. Therefore, at first glance, it may seem odd that China would be willing to forgo the gains that would arise from trade under efficient importing decisions in order to punish trading partners who receive the Dalai Lama.

However, China’s political leadership may be willing to bear the economic and political costs that arise from diverting trade away from Dalai Lama-receiving countries if such ‘punishment’ increases the likelihood of its political survival. By exerting economic pressure on these countries, the Chinese administration seeks to suppress any notion potentially challenging the territorial integrity of China and intends to strengthen the stability of its Communist regime in the multiethnic country,” the paper, titled “Paying a Visit: The Dalai Lama Effect on International Trade”, says.

The paper’s mention of the Hu Jintao era has a context to it. The Dalai Lama effect seems particularly recognizable during his tenure because of one obvious reason. Between 1988 and 1992 Hu was in charge of Tibet and was known to be particularly uncompromising on the hardline policy, an approach he maintained throughout his leadership. The rise of President Xi Jinping was expected to soften some of Beijing’s China policy and rhetoric. That has not happened at all.

As the official reaction, albeit part of the Chinese establishment’s performance art, to yesterday’s meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama shows China is unwilling to give any quarter at all to the 78-year-old Buddhist master.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui late Friday in Beijing summoned the charge d'affaires at the US embassy to strongly protest the meeting. Earlier, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement, "The US seriously interfered in China's internal affairs by allowing the Dalai's visit to the United States and arranging the meetings with US leaders. We urge the US to take China's concerns seriously, stop tolerance and support of anti-China separatist forces, cease interfering in China's internal affairs and immediately take measures to eliminate its baneful influence to avoid further impairment to China-US relations."

I wrote the following last year as I have done several times before:

I personally think it is in China’s long-term interests to invite  the Dalai Lama to Beijing for direct talks, notwithstanding that he has retired from his political role. There is nothing to stop Beijing from including the democratically elected Tibetan prime minister-in-exile Lobsang Sangay but that may be too bold for a system that calibrates every step when it comes Tibet. In fact, precisely because the Dalai Lama has given up a political role, it might make more sense to talk to him directly.

Although formal political power resides in the office of Tibetan prime minister-in-exile in a real sense, the Dalai Lama unquestionably remains an overarching influence over any negotiated future of Tibet. Beijing knows that very well.

Talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama’s representatives have been suspended since 2010 and there are no signs yet that they would be revived. Rather than talking to his representatives within a framework that is designed not to resolve anything, I think it is time for Beijing to host the Dalai Lama and have threadbare discussions.

2013 is not 1950 when China annexed Tibet, nor for that matter 1959 when it forced the Dalai Lama into exile in India. China is far more secure in its own skin now having pulled off what is widely regarded as human history’s biggest economic transformation.  The least it can do is to talk to a Buddhist monk who has officially given up his political and temporal responsibilities.

There are only upsides to this strategy, particularly when for years now the Dalai Lama has spoken specifically in terms of seeking genuine autonomy within China and not independence. The only thing standing in the way of Beijing is Beijing.

A jaded diplomatic dance in Obama-Dalai Lama meeting

A February 18, 2010 photo of the first such meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House (Photo: Pete Souza/White House)

 

I did the following comment for the IANS wire on today’s White House meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama. It has been published worldwide.

By Mayank Chhaya

 

A July 16, 2011, photo of the second meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House (Photo: Pete Souza/White House)

When President Barack Obama meets the Dalai Lama in the White House on Friday morning, a jaded diplomatic dance will play out.

The meeting is being hosted in the Map Room of the White House instead of the Oval Office in a somewhat laughably symbolic scaling down of its perceived importance. It is a meaningless gesture of accommodation that successive US presidents have made keeping in view Chinese sensitivities.

Normally, only visiting heads of states and other important dignitaries are met with in the Oval Office. The Dalai Lama has traditionally been received in the Map Room, which in the diplomatic scheme of things is just another room in the White House as opposed to the Oval Office which is in the West Wing and the center of everything in Washington. The Map Room is on the ground floor where maps were consulted by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Second World War. Many other events have taken place there.

This will be the Dalai Lama's third meeting with President Obama, the first two having taken place in February, 2010 and July, 2011. Like the previous two meetings, this too is expected to be high on the optics and rather inconsequential in terms of making any impression on Beijing to directly engage the Dalai Lama.

The traditional wisdom of such a meeting is to read a possible US rebuke of China for its human rights record and other contentious issues. Entering the mix this time are territorial tensions in the East China Sea. As the Obama administration continues to strengthen its strategic presence in the region, the meeting with the Dalai Lama might come in handy, albeit purely for its optics.
There has been no change in the US position that Tibet is part of China.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden, who announced the meeting, said Washington supported the Dalai Lama's approach but recognized Tibet to be "a part of the People's Republic of China”.

"We do not support Tibetan independence," Hayden said.

"The president will meet the Dalai Lama in his capacity as an internationally respected religious and cultural leader," she said.

"The United States strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China. We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China."

The Obama administration is expected to lay fresh emphasis on the need for Beijing to hold direct talks with the Dalai Lama without conditions.

While all this sounds encouraging to someone just becoming familiar with the issues, those who follow the Sino-Tibetan dispute and the US position on it, all this is almost comically routine and so far without any consequence at all. Four years ago, President Obama, still fresh from his historic triumph in the presidential election barely a year prior, meeting the Dalai Lama might have had more than a symbolic value. However, as the passage of four years has shown, there has been absolutely no progress in the Sino-Tibetan dispute. If anything, in the past three years or so things have become much worse with more than 120 Tibetans immolating themselves to protest the ever constricting freedoms in Tibet.

It is a good thing that as a Buddhist master, the Dalai Lama has two main attributes - a sense of enlightened detachment and acute consciousness about impermanence of everything in the universe. Without those two, he might have gone expecting some recognizable outcome from his meeting with the US president.

China is expected to react to the meeting like it always does - with unconcealed contempt and almost contrived anger. A senior Chinese official was quoted by Reuters as saying that foreign leaders who meet the Dalai Lama should "pay a price for it." These are words which are repackaged every time Beijing thinks Washington is engaging the Dalai Lama in ways it disapproves of. They do not really lead to any identifiable consequences in US-China relations.

It makes no sense for the US president not to receive the Dalai Lama in the Oval Office because in the overall scheme of things it would make no material difference to China where the Tibetan leader is actually hosted. Meeting him in the Map Room is neither fooling the Chinese nor making them appreciative of America's gesture in being mindful of their sensitivities. No matter how one looks at it this is nothing more than vestigial diplomatic thinking which no one is willing to give up.

Here is to Pramod Pagedar

Pramod Pagedar

The last time I met Pramod was a couple of years ago in his news website’s office in Ahmedabad. As usual, he wore an expression of amiability and offered a firm handshake. When I asked him how he was he picked up his electrolarynx and said, “If you can understand this, I am doing well.”

Pramod had just returned from his doctor’s office that afternoon after a chemotherapy session. “If you see me next time at all, I may not have much hair. I may not need a comb for a while,” he joked in his electronic voice with surprising clarity. He had just begun using his electrolarynx.

He was remarkably matter of fact about his throat cancer and the potential risk to his life. “People feel compelled to be sympathetic and I find it awkward,” he said even as his electrolarynx trailed off. He moved it a bit along his throat and and completed the thought, “I understand that.”

I joked with him that perhaps we should do a Facebook chat across the desk. He laughed so loud that he started coughing.

For as long as I remember, Parmod, a fine friend, a terrific journalist and a wonderful human being, had that gruffness to his voice. I asked him once in the mid 1980s if he felt uncomfortable with that condition. He said he did not but those who interacted with him did. It was only a couple of decades later that it was discovered to be cancerous. It was surprising that doctors did not detect it much earlier.

After he took over as the editor of that news website Pramod was excited about reporting on the state of Gujarat with the dispassionate eye of a true journalist. “I want to make this the most reliable news source about Gujarat,” he said. Of course, he rued the fact that it was hard to find local journalists with a flair for writing in English. But he said he had made his peace with it and instead decided to handle all copy himself. “With my voice failing, I cannot do much field work anyway,” he said. For some reason though his voice sounded clearer on the phone than in person, he said, adding that he could always do phone interviews.

Pramod was one of those journalists who took both his craft and responsibility seriously. He detested the growing trend among youngsters to breach and fracture the English language while communicating on the Net or mobile phone. Even on Facebook chat he and I communicated using full sentences, right uppercasing and all the punctuation marks. Whenever we exchanged emails, they were fully fleshed out and properly paragraphed.

The last time I communicated with him was in August last year, asking him how he was doing. Here is what wrote back:

“I am better health wise than what I was in June. I spent most of my time during the last couple of months resting, meditating and reading spiritual stuff. I didn't really feel like using the Net or checking out newspapers or news TV as it is full of noise and garbage. Last week we shifted residence to a small bungalow in Gandhinagar, one of India's greenest, cleanest and most peaceful cities. The new environment suits me and the family perfectly.”

Pramod reported on everything but at his core he was a sound political observer. Since his grounding, like mine, was in print journalism he approached news with the eye of a daily journalist. Whenever we covered any event together in Bombay, be it a corporate one or a political one, the default mood was one of doubt and mild cynicism. It was probably true earlier as well but I noticed that in recent years Pramod’s personal politics had shifted a bit right of center. However, it was never in sympathy with any particular ideology. He said half in jest and half seriously that he could not tell where my politics lay. I told him my politics operated at the quantum level and it was impossible to tell their position and momentum simultaneously.

In Pramod’s passing I have lost a quietly self-assured, refined and no non-sense journalist friend.

Past masquerading as present

Primal by MC

Reading about a gas cloud three times the size of Earth moving toward the center of the Milky Way has returned me to one of my all time favorite scientific/philosophical themes. I have frequently written about how everything in the universe is always communicating through its past and never its present. All phenomena that we experience are dated.

There is no real real time contact among objects considering that the time lag between any two object is considerable. As you begin to look beyond the interplanetary and into the intergalactic the distances become so vast that they no longer make sense on the human scale. It is from this standpoint that I read Ron Cowen’s story “It’s snack time in the cosmos.”

The story says:

In March or April, a gas cloud that has been hurtling toward the center of the Milky Way is expected to collide with Sagittarius A*, a black hole that lies just 26,000 light-years from Earth. (The actual event, of course, took place 26,000 years ago.)

The cloud is as massive as three Earths — no match for the black hole, which has the mass of four million suns.

“This is a rare opportunity to witness spoon-feeding of a black hole,” said Avi Loeb, a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard. “Will the gas reach the black hole, and if so, how quickly? Will the black hole throw up or spit the gas out in the form of an outflow or a jet?

“The experience is as exciting for astronomers,” he went on, “as it is for parents taking the first photos of their infant eating.”

The idea that scientists are getting excited about an event that happened 26,000 years ago because we get to see it only now is a strange one. To be sure, whatever had to happen to the gas cloud and Sagittarius A has already happened a long time ago. Spoiler alerts are not necessary when it comes to such cosmic occurrences because there is no one else who has seen them in our general vicinity before we are about to. And we do not even know whether the gas cloud was eaten up by Sagittarius A or not. That is the excitement. It is a very very slow folding story because even if the black hole did indeed gobble up the gas cloud, as the story reports, it could take years before we get to see the attendant fireworks.

The gap of 26,000 years before the actual possible gas cloud-Sagittarius A encounter and what we are getting around to only now is a fascinating one. One way to get around this problem of enormous datedness is to collectively agree that our past is in fact jointly our present and our present will be our joint future. I use “our” in a cosmic and not an earthly sense. All that we can do is together decide that the present is when we see it and not when it might have actually happened in relation to a particular event or an object.

Of course, we can also resign to the fact that there is no real present but perpetual past and there is no real future but nascent present. Moments are taking birth and perishing all the time. Our immediate anthropic present will never reconcile or converge with that of even our nearest planetary neighbor, the moon because of the time lag, albeit miniscule in this particular case.

For all practical purposes it does not really matter that we are never up-to-date about the universe because we have to live with what appears before us.

There are two kinds of present, one that is real present as experienced by the object in question and the other as experienced by those away from it. This time lag exists even on our own planet but it is so small that as human we cannot perceive it.

The trick is to treat the human present as the time we humans experience it even if it may have in reality happened a long time ago, as is the case in the gas cloud-Sagittarius A encounter. It sets off my mind on to another paradox. At the cosmic scale reality is not when it is actually real but when we experience it to be so. Since that is indeed the case, don’t talk to me about what is real. Real is real only for the object in question. For the rest, it is all past masquerading as present.