The moment it clicks

One of the most beautiful aspects of doing math is the flash of insight that lets you out of a mental block.

This may appear surprising to those not in the field but the fact is that research mathematicians fumble around looking for the light switch in a dark room for much of their waking hours. Things usually don’t work out. Being stuck on a problem is the default state.

That’s what makes those moments precious. Suddenly, you see it. A germ of an idea appears in your head, something clicks and you realize — this will work.

My roommate has a wonderful book on photography whose title is the subject of this post. The book has amazing photographs but I also find the title excellent. It is all about the moment, in art and in math.

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On Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories

There’s a certain quality about Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories. For want of a better word, I’ll call it tension.

It is not the fear-laced tension of a well-told ghost story or the sexual tension of a romantic novella. Nor is it the tension that comes from reading a truly great novel of ideas, the kind that turns your world upside down.

No, Jhumpa Lahiri’s tension is of a more earthly kind. It thrives upon the most basic unit of human society, the relationship. It entertains the reader, yet makes him feel uneasy. There are no grand flourishes in her writing style. Her sentences don’t evoke wonder the way Fitzgerald’s, Nabokov’s or even Kiran Desai’s do. Yet, her writing contains an astonishing understanding of the human condition and of the extraordinary potential for disquietude, contradiction and waste when two distinct beings interact for a long time. You read her for a while and slowly you fall under the power of the mundane. Everything is subtle, indeed subliminal, but the effect is a powerful one. Or is it just me?

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