Spectroscopy is the study of how
matter interacts with radiation. If a particular radiation strikes matter, is
it absorbed transmitted, reflected or scattered? If it is absorbed, does it get
re-emitted and if so is it fully or partially re-emitted. Is this behavior of
matter towards radiation uniform for all radiation irrespective of wavelength
or frequency? For the same wavelength, is the same kind of response exhibited
by another specimen of matter? These are some of the questions answered by the
spectroscopists.
Light-matter interaction is
highly subjective to both, the type of radiation and the type of matter. The
kind of reaction a radiation invites from different materials differs. So is
the case when the material is unchanged, but is acted upon by different types
of radiations.
A word to my non-physicist
readers: you may be wondering why I have suddenly taken into typing my lecture
notes on the blog. I am explaining all this so that all readers have a minimum
background knowledge required to understand what is coming next.
Life can be thought of as
analogous to spectroscopy. I know any normal person would be baffled by this statement
and the most they would agree to would be that ‘spectroscopy may be considered
an analog to life and not vice-versa’. Since I rank rather low on the normalcy
quotient, and since I am a physicist, I can stick to my original version and hence
I repeat that “life is an analog to spectroscopy”.
Just like different kinds of
substances respond differently to the same radiation, different people react
differently to the different situations in life. Also, the same individual may respond
differently to different situations in life. This, I feel, is analogous to
matter responding differently to different radiations-absorbing some,
transmitting some and reflecting or scattering some.
I had been thinking about this
interesting similarity between life and spectroscopy for quite some time and
these not-so-fancy conjectures got reinforced in my mind at a workshop that I
attended last week. The workshop on “Living a Powerful and Lovable Life” aimed
at making each individual free of the shackles of the past and the emotional
burden has been carrying all his life, albeit unknowingly. As each person got
into a series of introspection leading to retrospection it was soon revealed to
everyone that most often our emotional hassles are the result of our
interpretations of the situations and incidents of life and the words and deeds
of others. Once we make our minds free of the (mis)interpretations, and let go
of these stories (as they are called) that we have been telling ourselves, our
lives would become more peaceful, powerful and purposeful.
The workshop also emphasized on
the emptiness and meaninglessness of life. Though, I was initially apprehensive
of taking in that fact, what was implied soon became clear. All of us have
different views and definition about life which means that the meaning of life
is different for each one of us and that is the crux of the idea. If different
people nurture different ideas or meanings of life then that would be a truly
subjective or relative matter, wouldn’t it? This implies that life as itself is
“meaningless” or “empty”. It is we who are attributing some meaning to “life”
and this, we are doing based on our past experiences. This was what the
workshop was trying to highlight-that by making our own interpretations to life
and adding our own meaning to it, we are a mighty lot. Each of us has the power
to define our lives and since we anyway have that power, why not make our life
a powerful, lovely and lovable one !
We should realize that life has
been given to us as a clean slate-meaningless and empty. It is in your hands to
decide what to write on it – how to define your life giving it the meaning you desire.
So it is you who decide if your life is a blessing, a mystery, a gift, a
journey, a lesson, a hell or roller-coaster ride (these were some of the
‘meanings’ of life that came up from the participants at the beginning of the
session before we realized its emptiness).
Well, the workshop definitely
made me realize the power of our interpretations (usually wrong ones) which
gives an element of inauthenticity to our lives. We are so much trained and
tuned to live amidst a host of prejudices and misinterpretations. It is the
perspectives that are always decisive of how happily you live your lives. Given
the same situation 2 individuals may not respond in the same manner as their
perspectives are different. That’s why one gets to hear mixed opinions on
everything under the sky. It is alright to have your perspectives and
interpretations, but it becomes perilous to your emotional health if you go
about thinking that all your interpretations are right and real.
The role of interpretations and
individual points of view is rampantly evident in our daily life. You relate
the same incident to different people and will be amazed at the varied
responses you get. I would like to call that a multitude of spectra of
reactions with not just the positions of peaks and dips varying in each, but
their intensities and bandwidths as well. Some see any issue professionally,
and we get to know their profession from the first comment they make. Some others
see the humour in every situation and there is still another group who are hard
core cynics, not to speak of the not-so-rare species of philosophers who take
it on themselves to spread the light of “their” knowledge whatever be the
scenario.
I suddenly recalled the different
reactions and responses I got from different friends and relatives when I told
them about a particular incident. This happened more than a year ago. While
riding pillion on my friend’s two-wheeler on our way back from a French movie
screening, both of us fell off the scooter suffering minor injuries. The potholes on the road were the culprits. Apart
from the scrapes and scratches on my face and limbs, I had injured my right
foot which left me partially immobile for the next 4 weeks and a part of the
foot had got burnt too. Not too minor per se. My friend was far less affected
and had only some scrapes on her arms. When this story was narrated to
different people, the responses varied widely.
The doctor at the casualty asked
me if I am conscious, nauseous, seeing double, feeling giddiness, etc. Of
course that his job, can’t call it as a response based on perspective. Or
perhaps it is. As a medical professional that is his perspective of looking at
things, maybe one can call it a “consciously acquired perspective”. All
perspectives are acquired through our past experiences, none of us is born with
any inherent viewpoint of looking at life.
An uncle of mine asked me what I
was doing on the two-wheeler in the first place. “What are legs for?” was his
query.
The aunty next door gets the cake.
On hearing the story of my “pitfall” her question was how good the French movie
was and if it has English subtitles!!
My boss - a senior Professor- had
come down from Mumbai to give a talk the next day, which I missed owing to my
injury. On hearing about my accident from someone, he texted me: “Surya, I
didn’t know you would go to this extreme to avoid seeing me and attending my
session.”
Another interesting response came
from a student of mine who has a habit of overdramatizing things (of course
that is “my” perspective). She exclaimed: “Oh ! Madam ! What is this? How could
you do this?” Did she think was happily performing a “jumping-off-the-scooter”
event? If she had been thinking that I was a reincarnation of Houdini, her
misconceptions must have got laid to rest on that day seeing my
larger-than-life foot.
Yet another student, a naughty
chap, was unusually sympathetic. “Ma’am”, he said, “you need to take proper
rest, that foot needs that. I don’t think you should bother about that unit
test you promised us for next week. We are ready to sacrifice that for your
sake.”
A friend of mine messaged : “Oh!! Poor
scratchy-patchy !! Take care. Thankfully your hands and fingers are okay, so
you can text me as much as you want”
I was expecting a big uproar
from my dad, who normally minced no words in berating me and the rest of the
universe (excluding himself, of course) when anything anywhere goes wrong.
Surprisingly, this time he was unusually calm and philosophical, saying:
“That’s all part of life. One shouldn’t unnecessarily worry about such petty
events”!! Was he the same man, who a few years back had created a havoc when I
got slightly pushed (can’t even call it a ‘hit’) by an auto-rickshaw when the
driver was slowly reversing it from a parked position?
My mom on the other hand had
suffered a change in perspective in the opposite direction. This time she was a
bit worried about my injury. That was totally unexpected from her who on
hearing about the auto-rickshaw incident had asked me the number of the auto or
the driver, so that she could enquire if the vehicle got damaged on hitting me.
“If so, we have to compensate for that poor man’s damages”, was her finding !!!
That tells me “Perspectives
matter…and Perspectives do change.” And anything that can change, can be
changed. Change it …to live a powerful life and a life you love. That’s a plus
we can ponder upon. Cheers !
Picture Courtesy:
http://www.findingauthentichappiness.com/what-is-emotion.html
