In Conversation With: The Universe

Does it matter that I'm writing this?

Hearing you is a substantial problem, given you are a minute dot in a 13.8 billion light years-wide sea of dots (me!). A speck in space, and a speck in time. Your whole lifetime is less than a millisecond in the calendar of my life. Still, does it matter that you're writing this? Maybe.

What lies beyond you?

Some questions are best left unanswered. Parallel universes? Good guess. Empty space? But isn't that SOMETHING? Nothing but me? It'd be interesting if I end all the way at infinity. All of this at once? Unfathomably mind-bogglingly fascinating!

What is life, exactly?

A tool to perceive me with, to convert the chaotic combination of waves and particles I am to a more orderly state - thought, even at its most basic level. Through your mind, I come into existence. The existence of your mind requires, as a prerequisite, my existence. How consciousness works remains a mystery... to you.

Why are you as you are?

If I wasn't as I am, there is a chance you won't be here to think about this. I am as I am because you are thinking of me. Sometimes I wonder if the laws of physics evolved over time to adapt to the best circumstances, a situation you humans might compare to the evolution of life on the Earth. Why am I as I am? Why do I descend into disorder? Well, answer this - how can you be sure this is the only form of me which exists? Food for thought: maybe I exist in all possible forms, you are merely part of one.

Why is everything so perfect? Did everything conspire to make us exist?

What you see as perfect may only seem perfect to you while it may not be so in reality - rendering you incapable of imagining a state of absolute perfection. The fact that life exists may lie somewhere in between on the scale of perfection. Imagine my other forms, maybe they're real.

What's with all the cryptic answers and the mystery?

If not for all these vague answers and a strong and impending sense of mystery, would you have thought of me? To make you think, it is impossible that I truly reveal myself. If not for this curious little feeling inside you, you wouldn't be talking to me right now.

Where am I and how fast am I going?

Choose one, or it'll be the end.

What happens at the end?

A new beginning.

Tokyo.

Expectations were high with my first trip abroad - spending 16 years of my life in the capital city of India with only occasional summer trips to the mountains gave birth to a certain naive fascination with the land the people of a different country. Fascination, brought on by thought which lacked experience.

When I scored a chance to visit Japan for a week on a science-oriented trip, it was something my mind couldn't initially accept, owing to how sudden the announcement was.

On landing in Tokyo, I expected to see a city entirely different from where I reside, expected to see a marked difference. The first lurch to reality arrived when I realized that the air or the sky wasn't much different - a thought which might seem strange or laughable to someone with frequent foreign trips on their list. This is something my mind conjured out of fascination. We were on the outskirts of Tokyo, terrain mostly spotted by greenery-covered hills and then more green to charm your eyes.

As the hills slowly flattened, transforming the green to glistens of metal followed by buildings growing larger and larger to skyscrapers undistinguishable from our line of sight, I just started to realize what I would be experiencing for the next few days - the essence of Tokyo, a mix of the latest technological innovations and age-old culture, many times conservative.

Tokyo is a city where you can find temples and ninja training signboards, but Tokyo is also a city with keen museums and insights into artificial intelligence, space exploration and high-speed transportation. It is astonishing how most of the people there are unable to speak English and communicate properly with tourists, yet the city continues to grow rapidly because of the simple, amazing revelation that it stands on the crossroads of technology and culture, of science and the humanities.

A model of the Michelson-Morley experiment!

The Asakusa Temple, oldest in Tokyo

You'll walk into streets with people who look down upon loud behaviour (a discomfort sometimes curbing freedom). The next day, you'll discover a street enclosed by skyscrapers covered by metres-tall Manga posters, a street which bars traffic every afternoon and transforms into a paradise for any fan of Japanese pop culture (the place is Akihabara - one of the most alive places I have ever been to).

                  

A building at Akihabara

When a whole country is obsessed with Manga

All of this makes Tokyo a city which can constantly surprise you, creating in your mind a new perception of it even if you visit it multiple times. For someone visiting a different part of the Earth for the first time, Tokyo is a city as exhilarating as change, as setting foot into a new home.