Comical Hero

 

We have a family tradition, as we head to a picnic, I tell my daughter: "I really don't like eating under those trees. She asks me in a rehearsed tone: "But why, dad?" and then I reply "They just seem kind’a shady." The same Joke was told to me by someone elder in my family. The tradition continues and so does the tradition of what we term as Dad Joke or a PJ in the Indian context. In this case, this is literally a dad joke in my family. In recent years, the mass-sharing capabilities of the internet have facilitated a renewed (eye-rolling, faux-begrudging) appreciation of the dad joke. Dad jokes are simultaneously beloved and maligned, deeply ingrained in the intimacies of family life, and yet universal and public enough to have a hashtag. A specific tone and interpersonal dynamic converge to make a joke a dad joke. When dad jokes get affectionately mocked or mockingly appreciated online, they’re often characterized as ultimately harmless but only barely clever. But if there’s one feature that can immediately categorize a joke as a “dad joke,” it’s wordplay, especially of the unsophisticated variety. That’s why we here in India call it a Poor Joke. Stanley Dubinsky: an English professor, linguist, and co-author of the book: Understanding Language through Humor explains that there’s a particular type of wordplay that gives a joke the dubious distinction of being a dad joke. Polysemy, derived from the Greek terms for “many” and “signs,” is the coexistence of several meanings or uses for the same word. As per Dubinsky, that’s the basis of Dad Joke. “Most jokes rely on some semantic ambiguity or grammatical ambiguity,” Dubinsky says. “The things people call ‘dad jokes’ are the ones where the ambiguity is crushingly obvious.” How these types of jokes got associated with dads, however, is another question: maybe because young kids laugh at anything and as they grow old there’s a sense of loss and nostalgia that sets in for when they were smaller. Also as they grow old one way to disrespect your parents is to note how unsophisticated their humor is. This is across cultures be it the US, Asia, or Africa.   

For as loathsome as dad jokes supposedly are, they remain ... surprisingly popular. Their appeal could be rooted in the desire to take a momentary break from an increasingly stressful environment, especially online. The political climate and the polarization of discourse, on social media and elsewhere, have disrupted the way we talk to each other. Dad jokes can be a relief from the viciousness and nihilism of a lot of the other humor that tends to populate social media. As Dubinsky says “It’s sort of like, ‘We’re going to get off this highly polarized, highly agenda-ized humor train and just laugh innocently for a little while: There’s a comfort in that.”  

In Maharashtrian Households, wordplay and situational Humor are rated as the highest form of well-being. We have a great tradition of comedians who had adorned literary space. Noted authors and playwrights like Gadkari, P L Deshpande, P K Atre, and many others have created classics that are repeated a numerable amount of times in Houses.  In fact in Marathi, a hero was a comedian: One could make the audience laugh. The Quartet of Lakshmikant Berde, Ashok Saraf, Sachin, and Mahesh Kothare revived Marathi film Industry after a lull. Comedy Marathi plays still catch the audience at the theatres. Hindi Movie took time to really acknowledge a comical Hero. Though lead actors like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bacchan did occasional comedy in the real sense comedy was left to character comedians like Mukhri, Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Rajendra Nath, Jagdeep, Asrani and others. Later this trend was picked up by Jonny Lever, and Rajpal Yadav during Khan and Yashraj's era. The new mold of OTT/Multiplex movie stars like Ayushman, Raj Kumar Rao, and Pankaj Tripathy have it in them (Just Like Kishore Kumar), especially in subtle and dark comedy. The Comedian hero reappeared in a real sense to a limited sense. In Hollywood, all Major star and their characters have a comedy streak in them including action characters like James Bond or Maverick. The comedy genre has been enriched by many great movies in Hollywood. Even comedy franchises like Golmaal, Welcome, Housefull, etc have succeeded in the Mainstream. And big budget films need to have good comedy along with Music to be a mega-hit and do multiple hundred crores.    

Dad (PJs) Jokes have impacted real lives just as Comedy in Reel /stage/literary life has inspired and acknowledged the role of Comedy in our mundane lives. In real life, we have seen heroism by ex- standup comedian Zelinsky during Ukrainian Crisis.  Standup comedy and laughter shows rule the roost on the Television screen interestingly called the Idiot box. Being funny is possibly one of the best things you can do for your health. You can almost think of a sense of humor as your mind's immune system. People at risk of depression tend to fall into depressive episodes when exposed to some kind of negative stimuli, and afterward, it becomes easier and easier for them to relapse into depression. However, reframing a negative event in a humorous light acts as a kind of emotional filter, preventing the negativity from triggering a depressive episode though tragically we have seen a great comedian like Robin Williams succumbing to Depression. People with a sense of Humor have better self-esteem, more positive affect, greater self-competency, more control over anxiety, and better performance in social interactions. Not all kinds of humor are made equal, however. There is negative humor: such as mocking others; and self-defeating humor, in which an individual encourages jokes that have themselves as the target or self-deprecate. It is important to know the boundaries of humor.  

Please inculcate some great sense of humor if you want to be a hero in your real life rather in addition to pumping iron in Gymnasium.  

 

Defense against Offence

 

We live in a world where everyone is offended by something. I learned a lesson very recently someone was offended by something which in the conventional sense was innocuous. The situation got worse as it usually does on social media thanks to the usual fun-seeking elements.   Offense can be taken from anything -mind it.  It could be the color of a person’s hair, the way they hold a spoon, the tone of their voice, or it could also be because of something they saw on social media — everyone has something they’re sensitive about, and when they come across it, they get upset.  

In life, we keep on playing a game: Defense-Offence.  Do you remember this practice routine? During my college days, I used to play inter-hostel hockey. Attackers in the same team use to attack a goalpost defended by defenders. Life at work and play especially that on social and mainstream media is a continuous game played. Roles differ occasionally, and teams change but the game continues. Mainstream media creates furor and sometimes with more tragic sequences No one is spared. Be it politicians, actors, or even the last person in the pyramid is not spared from this game.   

According to psychology experts, these could be the reasons why people are so easily offended. The best defense against the offense is to understand the mindset of those offended. Learning lessons and trying to avoid such occurrences. One thing to keep in mind is that offensive comments are offensive to the person receiving the comment because that is how they are interpreting the comment. It is how they come to develop this interpretation that varies from person to person. It is also the reason why not all offensive comments are perceived to be offensive. For these reasons, it is important to have a willingness to hear the other perspective first before choosing to dismiss them because they happen to see the world differently. As per experts:  

They may be anxious: People who are easily offended may also struggle with anxiety and a need to control their version of the world. They are used to being in control of things in their lives. As a result, they may find themselves needing to control others’ responses as well. Taking offense to a perceived insult can be a function of anxiety in that it requires the other person to acknowledge and potentially tailor their thinking and behavior to match the offended person’s worldview. Essentially, they have a need to see their version of the truth as the only truth, which can help mitigate their experience of anxiety.  

They may be driven by guilt: People who have engaged in offensive behavior sometimes have a tendency to overcompensate with moral rectitude as a way to help lessen the guilt they are feeling, as well as convince everyone else (and themselves) that they are not truly a “bad” person. Taking offense can be a way to disown the part of ourselves that might actually agree with what is being said by putting the responsibility on the other person.  

They may be insecure: People who feel insecure have often been invalidated and learned others will not respond to their needs in helpful or meaningful ways. They typically have not learned how to get their needs met assertively and often respond in a passive-aggressive manner. As a result, they may find they are more easily offended than others as a way to acknowledge their pain and seek validation of their experience.  

They are trying to rewrite a pain from their past: Offensive comments are just that to the listener – offensive. Offensive comments tend to strike deeply at a past pain that has not been worked through yet. Being offended is a way to validate and address the pain by speaking to it and for it in the moment and in a way a person may not have been able to do in the past.    

They maybe are pawns in a different scheme of things: Sometimes people with vested interests and the mindset of having fun at expense of others may instigate the perception of the offense taken.  

But then what’s your defense against those who offend you or vice-versa? Experts say:" Examine your reactions. It’s never a bad idea to consider your own behavior. Do you perceive things clearly? Is there anything you can do differently to ease the tension? Don’t fall into an ongoing battle of passive aggression. Be explicitly clear that you are uncomfortable and would like to address the problem that exists between you”. I recently put this to practice with someone I was butting heads with at work. We agreed on common objectives and established clear ownership of the various tasks we shared, and it made a big difference. Further “If someone is targeting you, engage with them privately and honestly. Give them a voice. It’s possible this person is acting out because they don’t feel heard. Perhaps they believe you’ve slighted them in some way when it’s only a misunderstanding. Don’t get defensive. As soon as you stop listening and start defending yourself, they’ll lose interest and you’ll solve nothing. Whatever you do, don’t fall into a tit-for-tat situation. If this person is digging at you, don’t entertain the idea of responding in kind. A game of negativity ping-pong only makes things worse. Don’t ever give someone power over you. You have complete authority over your actions and emotions, which is an empowering realization. Don’t fall into the trap where you start blaming someone else for your inappropriate response or decline in performance. Minimize the brain’s threat responses and maximize its reward responses. Based on the SCARF Model, developed by the Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute, David Rock, there are five domains that influence our emotional and behavioral reactions to situations at work (status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness). For example, micromanaging is often a threat to autonomy, while trust is a reward".  

Be equipped in this game of Offense and Defense. Good Luck! 

Freedom Festival

 

Indian Calendar is filled with festivals. The first half is relatively sparse though we have a steady stream of celebrations for Sankranti (various regional versions), Holi, Baisakhi, Regional New Years, BuddhaPournima and others. After a lull in Monsoon and with the advent of the Holy Indian month of Shravan coinciding normally with the August month, we start celebrating festivals one followed by another. The celebrations go all the way till the 31^st of December making the second half of the year very busy.  As we start festivities in and around August, we also celebrate our Festival of Freedom on the 15^th of August.  

15^th of Aug invokes different memories for various generations. Those who were born before Independence and are still with us to celebrate the 75th Independence Day must have been in their childhood or early youth in 1947. I can imagine the excitement they must felt as a child and a sense of achievement as reflected by their parents and seniors or the earlier generations who really fought for independence.   Earlier Generations must have felt that all their troubles would have evaporated with the end of the British Raj.  But the generation which is now witnessing the 75^th Independence Day and also was present during the tryst with destiny in 1947 must have felt all their hopes and aspirations ended as a new set of indigenous colonists took over from the British. This generation and those born within the first 20 years of Independence have spent most of their active life struggling for opportunities for growth, struggling with scarcities of the basic necessities of life.  

Our generation that was born in the first half of the decade of the 70s has a completely different set of experiences about 15^th Aug. 15^th August meant rising early for school, buying flags, balloons, and other trinkets associated with Nationhood, Listening to the patriotic songs blared on loudspeakers at every square, attending flag hoisting ceremony at the school and spending rest of the day watching patriotic movies or just playing with friends. In our house, we used to make sweets to celebrate. Our textbook imbibed the greatness of a few leaders during the freedom struggle. Our generation had no idea about the various contributions and sacrifices of many other people during the freedom struggle.  We had history books delving into details about the freedom struggle while all the previous history was taught perfunctorily.  The exams, years, and data that we needed rote deglamorized History as a topic. Thus any deviation was very popular, for example, Standard IV history in Maharashtra which was focused on Shivaji was very popular.  But somehow the stress on freedom struggle in the history textbooks sometimes made people like me wonder about the experience of living in that period. The entire nation united for one cause: Freedom (just like how we unite only during the Cricket world cup ironically). I still remember the answer given by the contestant of Miss Universe: Madhu Sapre from India for a question asking what one wish she wanted to make to the almighty. She said she wished she was born during the freedom struggle and contribute. Many people still are not happy with the answer and feel that was the reason she did not win the contest and was relegated to the first runner-up position. But on the face of it, I agree with the excitement and experience that she must have imagined.  

As we grew into the college, India changed its tryst with destiny by following the path of liberalization and globalization. Indian youth in our generation took the path of a knowledge-driven economy and global careers. The majority had access to resources and commodities. The boom trickled down though not equally by any means, but it did bring about changes in both urban India and Rural Bharat.  Tier 2-3-4 Cities expected the same quality of life as in Metros. Villages transformed a bit. Though the last man in the pyramid especially in the rural agrarian economy dependent on Monsoons and urban poor living in sub-human conditions still faced some fight for survival.  But for many families, globalization brought in aspirations to compete with the best in the world. India was searching for its rightful place in the world order. The consumption and available resources brought in hedonistic tendencies.  15^th August festival turned into a day of Picnic for our generation who did not have botherations of school /college attendance (though it was added as we turned into parents).  Marketeers were using this opportunity to sell anything under the sun: Movies, Food, Travel, Shopping, and so on. Remember the Big Bazaar sales.   

As aspiring India, especially the Millennials and GenZ took over, they had no baggage from the past be it independence movement or license raj scarcities, they pushed the envelope further and got a regime change which promised them assertion and freedom from corruption, policy paralysis, and terrorism (especially endless trauma after 9/11 through blasts, terror attacks). Though the regime still flounders on the economic front though one must admit the bitter pill of GST or Covid-induced recession, aspirational India has found more voice and meaning of 15^th Aug. Celebration is more about assertion and expression of original ideas. I am not sure if we are united and inclusive in this celebration. There is still one segment that feels alienated on religious grounds. But it’s the time for all to mend fences and unite as we do during a patriotic movie or Cricket match. 

Now it’s the time to dream big. We need to grow our economy, we need to be innovative and have companies that would compete with the best in the world. We need to impart quality education and ensure development reaches the last man in the pyramid: Agrarian rural laborers and urban slum dwellers and so on. More importantly, we need to be united across all our divides in this path of development. Let’s be together in the Celebrations of festivals dedicated to the freedom of India.  

 

World Wide Web of Webb

 

There is excitement around the latest space observatory launched by the US. To follow the buzz in social media about the images transmitted we also saw naysayers comparing the image with an extremely blurred image of a robber captured by CCTV cameras. If we cannot capture something so close it is ironic that we try to look so far. The naysayers also tried to rationalize the expenses done while mentioning that if such spending was done to save our own planet from climate change; it would have been worthwhile spending in comparison.  For those uninitiated, The James Webb Space Telescope, also called Webb or JWST, is a large, space-based observatory, optimized for infrared wavelengths. It will cover longer wavelengths of light than Hubble and will have greatly improved sensitivity. The longer wavelengths enable JWST to look further back in time to see the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and to peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.  It is only at infrared wavelengths that we can see the first stars and galaxies forming after the Big Bang. And it is with infrared light that we can see stars and planetary systems forming inside clouds of dust that are opaque to visible light  

 

The primary goals of Webb are to study galaxy, star, and planet formation in the universe. To see the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe, we have to look deep into space to look back in time (because it takes light time to travel from there to here). The universe is expanding and therefore the farther we look, the faster objects are moving away from us, redshifting the light. Redshift means that light that is emitted as ultraviolet or visible light is shifted more and more to redder wavelengths, into the near- and mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum for very high redshifts.  To study the earliest star and galaxy formation in the universe, we have to observe infrared light. Star and planet formation takes place in the centers of dense, dusty clouds, obscured at normal visible wavelengths. Near-infrared light, with its longer wavelength, is less hindered by the small dust particles, allowing near-infrared light to escape from the dust clouds. By observing the emitted near-infrared light we can penetrate the dust and see the processes leading to star and planet formation. An infrared-optimized telescope allows us to penetrate dust clouds to see the birthplaces of stars and planets. 

 

This observatory is named after James E. Webb (1906- 1992), NASA's second administrator. Webb is best known for leading Apollo, a program that landed the first humans on the Moon.  He also initiated  a space-science program that was responsible for many launches including America's first interplanetary explorers 

 

We have yet to observe the era of our universe’s history when galaxies began to form. We have a lot to learn about how galaxies got supermassive black holes, and we don't really know whether the black holes caused the galaxies to form or vice versa. We can't see inside dust clouds with high resolution, where stars and planets are being born nearby, but Webb will be able to do just that. We don't know how many planetary systems might be hospitable to life, but Webb could tell whether some Earth-like planets have enough water to have oceans.  We are expecting to learn more about where dark matter is now, and we hope to learn the history of the acceleration of the universe that we attribute to dark energy.   

 

JWST is expected to cost NASA 10.8 Billion$. Are the above-mentioned benefits justifying these expenses, especially during our existential crisis brought about by Climate change? To be able to justify this Webb of questions, let’s visit the past history of space research and the benefits it has brought to mankind, especially on climate change. Satellites operated by NASA,  and other commercial firms provide a plethora of multispectral imaging and radar measurements of developments such as coral reef degradation, harmful plankton blooms, and polar bears negotiating thinning ice.  The technology involved in observing the Earth today was initially developed for probes sent to explore other planets in our solar system. It was the NASA Satellite data that revealed a frightening and growing hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole galvanizing public concern and resulting in the Montreal protocol in 1987. Understanding the evolution of other planets’ climates is essential for modeling possible outcomes on Earth. NASA probes revealed how a runaway greenhouse gas syndrome turned Venus into an uninhabitable planet of acid rain. As we continue studying the transformation of a once warm and wet Mars into a frigid, dry dust ball—and scientists even conceive of a future to transform it back into a livable planet. Discovering other worlds’ history and imagining their future offers important visions for climate change mitigation strategies on Earth, such as mining helium from the moon itself for future clean energy. Spinoff technologies from space research, from GPS to semiconductor solar cells, are already helping to reduce emissions; the efficiency gains of GPS-guided navigation shrink fuel expenditures on sea, land, and air. The applications such as the giant solar wings that power the Space-Stations have continually driven improvements in solar cell performance, and NASA first demonstrated the value of the sun for powering communities on Earth by using solar in its own facilities. Moving solar power generation away from Earth would preserve land and cultural resources from the blight of huge panel farms and save landfills from the growing problem of discarded old solar panels. Space technology offers the possibility of freeing the Earth’s fragile biosphere and culturally important sites from the otherwise unavoidable damage caused by manufacturing and mining. A U.S. start-up is currently taking the first steps toward manufacturing in orbit.  Mining resources from a distant lifeless world is clearly preferable to the degradation of the earth. 

 

The possibilities are enormous.  We never know what Webb will be woven in the future!