Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Symmetry Breaking

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From DC, yesterday:

Duchess' Teeth Deliberately Unaligned?

London: Kate Middleton's teeth have been deliberately made "not too perfect" which helped her in giving a "natural, healthy smile, but not an artificial one", a French dentist has claimed. Didier Fillion uses a system of "micro-rotations" and gentle whitening to make teeth look spectacular....

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No wonder it is said Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder.

When I was about 10 and my Father 40, there was this cinema we all watched in which Jamuna (total score: 198 films) was a newcomer at age 16. On our way back from the movie, my Father and I were walking ahead of the others. And, my Father, normally a shy chap, said: "This beautiful newcomer will become a famous actress soon." And I was a little taken aback and contested: "But her teeth are awful. One of them in her left upper jaw grows a bit over its neighbor."

And he crooned: "THAT is her beauty spot"

Veterans know all about beauty better than urchins!

When my son was about seven months old, he developed a scary reddish rash all over his Fair & Lovely body. We rushed him to the Child Specialist in BNR Hospital who asked us to immediately stop all those various oils my wife used to apply on his body parts, face and head. And leave him alone to Nature's own skin-glow oils. (That saved him; and me as well...I didn't have to buy those costly Johnson & Johnson kits).

One morning when I was walking with him in his pram to our Jersey Bull Mother Farm at IIT to fetch milk, an elderly dhoti-clad Bengali Bhadralok stopped the pram, blew a couple of kisses to the infant, and rebuked me for not applying the default black dot (bindi) on his forehead. Apparently the black dot wards off the Evil Eye. To please the Old Man and also to take no chances, I filched a Shilpa Black Sticker Bindi from my wife's kit and stuck it lightly a bit above the junction of his eyebrows.

The Old Man inspected my work next morning, shook his head, peeled off the bindi and stuck it way up on the right side of my son's forehead...deliberate (not spontaneous) Symmetry Breaking!

In the wedding functions of our AP folks, the bride and groom have their lovely symmetry broken by black dots stuck on their left and right cheeks respectively...some cheeks!

There are of course a disproportionately large number of talented left-handed batsmen in cricket. And some who bat with their left hand but bowl with their right arm. But I guess there are no great cricketers who bat with their right hand and bowl with their left arm...Symmetry Breaking?

The pictures of all the famous buildings I watched in my childhood were plumb symmetric...like Charminar, Taj Mahal, Victoria Memorial...

And all Clock Towers in my AP towns were symmetric. Also my University Science College with its towering Clock. Same with the Old Building at IIT KGP which was the infamous Hijli Jail. But the first skewed building I saw was this stunning New Building of IIT KGP with its 120 feet tall tower. Felt sort of out of place.

Most men have their hair parting to the left side of their face. So, it didn't feel very odd. But when I saw a picture of Hitler with his hair parting right and a Charlie Chaplin 'fly' mustache, to me he was a vastly amusing figure...not to Churchill though...

There is this nasty story told of a husband jealous of his wife's beauty. So, he said:

"Bhaaryaa roopvati shatruh!" (A good-looking wife is an enemy)

And blinded her left eye breaking her symmetry. Then he recalled:

"Ekaakshi lok sanchaari!" (One-eyed one has a roving eye)

And blinded her right eye, restoring the symmetry.

And then there is this bally story told of a chap betting with his friends and school mates, saying:

"Between us we have three"

And winning handsomely...God gave him only one...till he meets this Stranger whom God gave three.


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