February 06, 2006

Invictus..

My current project for my thesis is to study the Diatoms under different stresses, like the nutrient limitation etc. It’s amazing to see how these single celled organisms handle stress so beautifully, by switching on and off different genes. Most of the single cell organisms make a thick wall around itself to escape from extreme stressed conditions, thus they conquer the unfavorable conditions, but once they see the ‘happy’ environment, they break over the wall around them and go back to the tender, ‘happy’ state. Part of the story is true with us, humans too. Right? Various stresses we face, make us strong and tough, but do we return back to the tender, happy state? Most of the time we get stuck with this victories condition, declaring ourselves as ‘Invictus’ (Unconquered).
        Invictus
  Out of the night that covers me,
       Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
  I thank whatever gods may be
       For my unconquerable soul.

  In the fell clutch of circumstance
       I have not winced nor cried aloud.
  Under the bludgeonings of chance
       My head is bloody, but unbowed.

  Beyond this place of wrath and tears
       Looms but the Horror of the shade,
  And yet the menace of the years
       Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

  It matters not how strait the gate,
       How charged with punishments the scroll,
  I am the master of my fate:
       I am the captain of my soul. 
Yeah! This Poem Invictus by William Henley (1875) was quoted by Timothy, just before his execution. Invictus, a beautiful poem, the first two lines of each stanza talks about the ‘unfavorable’ condition which we come across, and the following two lines says how tough the poet was, to overcome to these ‘unfavorable’ conditions. But do we ever go back to the tender, innocent childhood in the happy stress free ‘environment’? Unlike the diatoms, we start hiding inside the dormant, thick walled tough state of a 'hardened person', calling ourselves, the Invictus , yet prejudiced and insensitive to the ‘happy’ environment… Lets these diatoms redefine the term ‘Invictus’!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

An American psychologist once said "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

true! prejudice,make us insensitive.

-san

Anonymous said...

Wavv uma u seem to be living with your studies, truly a scholastic attribute. Diatom stress biology directly applied to human conditions seems a good relation. Particularly the non canonical way of you looking at the poetry is nothing but splendid!. Invictus never reasoned to me in this angle of view. I take it as a lesson and many thanks for that.
- ash#