The Mystery of the Butterfly effect in Real Life.

A million thanks to the magic on the silver screen for introducing me to the interesting phenomenon called the butterfly effect. Starting from ‘‘The Jurassic park’’, which gives one of the most basic and simple explanations on this effect to ‘‘The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’’, the list goes on. However, it was ‘‘Mr Nobody’’ which really screwed up my mind and made me interested in digging up the concept, which finally led me to watch the most critically acclaimed one among this genre, ‘‘The Butterfly effect’’. To make it sound simple, let me say, small changes create big results. Enough said. It’s like picking up lotto or even the flipping of a coin. It’s like the possibility of having a disappointing Saturday night since you went for a pointless movie, just because you watched a catchy trailer in YouTube while causally surfing Facebook or randomly checking out Twitter.


The Butterfly effect derives its name from the popular explanation of creating a hurricane weeks or years later, just because some butterfly on the other side of the planet flapped its wings and moved some molecules eventually resulting in a sequence of disturbances in air. The relevance of initial conditions at any point of time is the ultimate factor of this effect also otherwise termed the Chaos theory. Movies with themes and concepts which pose a reality check have always excited me. The most recent one being Inception, where Christopher Nolan screwed up our mind by taking us for an adventure ride travelling through the different levels of our sub conscious mind. Possibilities of altering our realities or cheating our time frames is undeniably one of the best thought provoking themes experimented in movies. Movies with themes such as The Time Traveller’s Wife, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Back to the Future, Minority Report, 12 Monkeys, Kate & Leopold which challenges our time frames or rather check the reality of our current lives such as The Matrix are possibly some of the best works in this category. What confuses me with the time travel movies is the Time Corruption hypothesis or the more popular Grandfather paradox which makes the present reality impossible when someone goes back in time making different life paths, ultimately resulting in a butterfly effect.


My first instance of the butterfly effect from an Indian movie is from ‘‘ Dasavathaaram ’’, where the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean is portrayed as being caused by the sinking of Lord Vishnu’s idol along with Kamal Hassan in the 12th century. Though I wasn’t that interested in Chaos theory and Butterfly effect after watching this movie in 2008, I was pretty much impressed by the basic concept of this phenomenon and the brilliance of its story line. It’s quite interesting that, if we could go back in time and do things in life pretty differently and make alternative decisions & choices, doesn't that make a big difference to what we are or where we are today? If there ever comes a chance to travel back in time, the knowledge and wisdom of having lived our lives in this present life path makes us aware of the possible outcomes of choosing some of the options. But if we are to believe in God, then whatever options we choose in an alternative life path by picking a different school or a life partner or a bus or even a pair of footwear, we would eventually end up in the same fate. If it’s supposed to be so, then even our weirdest thoughts and our most awkward moments in life should be part of a master plan by the so called architect of life. At this point, I prefer to believe, there has never been any wrong decisions in our lives. Understanding the framework and complexity of the big picture as a whole, improves our perception to address the day to day issues and strategically organize our life.


It is the human form of butterfly effect which matters in the present world. The very actions we make at this moment, the very next move we make, matters a lot and could make a big difference in shaping not just our life, but even the lives of generations to be born. Messing up and screwing up our present daily lives could possibly ruin the entire culture of our country in future. Life opens up different doors for us to follow. It is up to us to choose the life path. In reality time doesn't go backwards, making it harder to make decisions. But that’s exactly how life works. Butterfly effect is all about the big picture. We are what we think or rather we become what we think we are. Instead of regretting about the options we made in our past, think about the moves and actions we could make in shaping our future and the future or even the existence of people some 20 or 50 years from now. Each and every move we make matters, not just for us but for our very universe. After all our universe desires randomness or entropy, so choose not to go with the flow and start making the right moves instead.

The Capricious Capricorn.

Time has been running out lately. Sometime back, I have been researching or rather indulging compulsively to prevent myself from procrastinating, in some personality studies. I would like to describe them as the adventures of a broken outlaw. I got some quite rich source of texts, online info’s and some surprisingly practical models. Those days were completely unplanned and the things I came across were obviously random. It all started when I bumped into the multiple personality book at the City Council Library. It was quite an interesting read to fill up the blank potholes regarding people’s character. In short I would like to summarize the entire concept as Introverts and Extroverts with numerous subdivisions!! The entire index of subdivisions really made me go nuts. What really got my attention were the zodiac signs. Now that was something solid. Considering the mysterious revelations behind the astrology stuff dating ages back, there is a basic foundation much stable than the unpredictable human personality traits.

Being a Capricon myself, I found it a bit contradictory to my outlook and the way I execute the adventures of life. Thanks to the limitless flow of information in Google, Social networking sites; Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. I got selflessly glued to the dedicated sites and pages for zodiac signs. More entertaining were the YouTube stuffs especially the ‘’Howcast Channel’’ ones. I loved reading the Capricon qualities such as being reserved, conservative, calm, responsible, hardworking and many other diplomatic traits which left me confused about myself. Of course I love being hardworking, dedicated, focused and passionate about my life. But that doesn’t seem to apply at all stages.

I get completely messed up at times and I love the process of being messed up though i regret at a later stage. Still I find it easy to get back to the normal scheduled lifestyle. Being childish, foolish and dumb at times really makes me feel better. It seems to happen when am among the company of the most trusted friends, cousins and even at workplace. I would like to make it clear that i love being honest and i appreciate the same from others. And I could even be unforgiving and grudgeful if tested beyond a limit. The extreme reserved character of mine even from the close ones at times is to prevent myself from being more vulnerable so that I won’t be hurt. A Capricon could be pessimistic and embrace depression, taking to the extreme bottom. But that doesn’t mean they are spoiled or doomed forever, they will eventually rise like a phoenix with new dimensions of outlook and perceptions. I find myself to be more concerned about helping and being there for my peers which could be annoying for some. Minding my own business seems to be the better option. Still I find it so beautiful being myself and loves every bit of it. Being ourselves is something which every single person would love to be. And the appreciation of our true self from others is what we really crave for.

I found it hard to accept the description of a Capricon personality as being stable and solid like a rock. It’s not possible for me to be a rock and get myself wrapped with the dirty moss unless otherwise I am a ‘’Sanyasi’’. I used to describe myself as ‘’a typical Capricon’’ in the ‘’About me’’ sections of the social networking sites though I was completely unsatisfied by its very reflection. I kept searching for a clear stream which was diplomatically more pure. Yup, surprisingly I finally found one from one of my cousins Orkut profile. ‘’Tony Capricious’’!! Capricious was the one true word. Seems like it’s been created just to fit perfectly well with the out of the box Capricons. I re-phrased myself as ‘’Capricious Capricon’’ from then on and it even rhymes well. Something like ‘’hakuna matata’’ I got caught red handed later on by my cousin for this plagiarism which he described in his own words as stealing his capsicum, haha.