Alpha, intellectually

I said to my colleague Ragu, that I was going with my family to watch the movie Tenet. Immediately he woke up from his work and shot three phrases, for me to study before going to the movie. reverse-entropy, temporal-pincer movement and grandfather paradox. He said, without knowing any of these, I will not make anything from the movie. This was the first time that I came across these phrases. But thanks to him, I googled and understood (though, not completely) these concepts, and if not for him, I would have been bullied for not getting the story right.

My earlier experience with Christopher Nolan‘s Inception, was so bad, that in spite of watching it a number of times, I couldn’t get it to a 100%. Grown up children in the family had explained it a number of times, but blame it on their explanation or my comprehension, I never really got it clean till now. Whenever the movie gets discussed, it leaves me a bit depressed as to why hadn’t I taken a crash course and educated myself about this story. I’m sure I have quite a company, for many among my friends are still trying to come to terms with Inception. Interstellar was anyways well understood. Its a different story that these concepts are being contested and debated on www.researchgate.com.

Christopher Nolan has a knack of working for few years (not months) for one movie, and make it earn for him for the next few years. In plain English, his movies are “intimidating our intellect”, making us watch again and again, just to understand, leave alone appreciate other elements of the making. I definitely do not want to be listed among the lesser kind, want to shout out to the world, “I have got it – count me in – don’t leave me behind”.

On that paradigm, I observe that we have been groomed with the stories of Chacha Choudhary, Vikram-Betal, Tenaliraman, Akbar-Birbal and the likes that keep our brains busy. Games like Chess, Sudoku, Rhombic cube, Crossword, even Dumb Charades give us a intellectual High that cannot be equated to any other. Shakuntala Devi’s puzzles that puzzle you (us), Bhaskar Bhattacharjee and Derek Obrein’s on Quizz, Kaun Banega Crorepati, are none but brain teasers. Off late, Netflix and Amazon are throwing puzzles at us in every series that they stream. When we can’t solve any one of them, we shall continue to feel deep-down-under until the next Win.

No wonder why we choose Sherlock Holmes to Watson – who is more amiable person. Success of that series also gave Benedict Cumberbatch the role of Marvel’s Dr Strange. Even Byomkesh Bakshi fares better than any of our super-heroes and earns my fan-fare. For that matter, every detective movie or novel that keeps our biological computer working is most welcome. Preferences are more inclined to be counted amongst the illuminati (refer Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons) than to be held high in some random place.

Broadly speaking, human beings are essentially problem-solvers, though you may succeed in debating that we are the cause, i.e., problem-creators. It is interesting to relate, besides these stories, number games, nowadays computers and data-analytics are taking us higher and higher on the artificial-intelligence (AI) plane of thought. The inner urge to put our brains to work and be seen among the mentally- mighty is a craving that we have had for ages. Also, since our physical existence wears out too soon and to live beyond time, one has to develop mental faculties way higher to claim to become the Alpha, intellectually.