Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Pattern Matching conundrum

The nature has a strange sense of pattern in anything that happens in this world. This pattern is at times observed by people and sometimes it is not. All these patterns may not be found in the same part of the world, but may indeed be lying far and wide in places like Chile and India or for example Norway and India. For one to identify a pattern or draw parallels to something that he has seen before in life requires a strong memory and an ability to instantly match the current structure that you see with a structure you have stored in your memory for some strong reason. This coincidence in similar patterns may either be a figment of the observer's imagination or indeed may be a coincidence or an inspiration in real life.We usually do pattern matching subconsciously at all times, without even realizing it.

While on a trip to Bergen, Norway on a summer vacation with my wife, we took around in the lake
in the city center - Byparken Smalungeren. I was suddenly mesmerized by the doors to one of the museums there. I don't know what caught my attention and kept it lingering. While i just started to walk away, something in my mind told me to go back and observe what i was seeing and that demanded a re-look from my mind. It was a door to one of the museums in here. I tried to think what is it that is so peculiar about this door that my mind is wanting to match another image from my past?  Then my eyes slowly scanned the door and were steady on the top portion of the door. A pattern match was found in my mind!


The top portion of the door to the museum

If you observe the top of the door above, it bears a striking resemblance to the small piece of "Lord Venkateswara" or "Lord Balaji"s vigraham (idol) with only the Lord's face, which is commonly seen in Tirupati - the abode of Lord Balaji or in various places. The image of the same is as attached below. If you look at the crown of Lord Balaji, that can be literally matched with the center of the roof of the door above.


Lord Balaji of Tirupati, India (Pics courtesy: TTD Website)

Though the shapes and the relative size of the conch shell (to the right of the crown of Lord Balaji in pic above) and chakra (to the left of the crown of Lord Balaji in the pic above) DO NOT bear any direct resemblance to the left and right portions of the door above, still the rounded shapes to the extreme corners of the door's top (very near to the small mushroom like structures) make you believe that it would be a closer match in the first look.

In real world some questions still remain unanswered:


1) Do these two structures really have any resemblance or i am trying to force fit a pattern here?


2) If there is a resemblance, was there any inspiration taken from Indian culture (Lord Balaji's mini version of idol as shown above) by the architect who designed the door and its top in Bergen ?


3) If there is a resemblance, is there a possibility that its a very common human habit of drawing symmetry which makes us balance the two sides of a central structure and coincidentally this principle forming the basis of a pattern common between these two images?


Maybe we may never have the right answers to these questions ever, but nevertheless pattern matching is a deep thinking exercise that you can get addicted to and never be aware of it!

4 comments:

Amavis said...

Indeed Deepak! Pattern matching is one of the reasons why humans haev survived, thrived and made glaring advances..

It is due to pattern matching that we can take decisions and thus arrive at conclusions.

But it is also due to pattern matching that we grow judgemental and propagate biases in society....

Anu said...

That is true Deepu, there definitely is a close resemblence. Also when you have faith in Balaji , he just lets you know that he is around you in whatever form you see him, be it Bergen or Tirupati!!!

Meenakshi Deepak said...

yes i do remember hw u were facinated towards that door... we took a full 360 circle of that big lake.. so that u cud see / observe this door closely.. and yes it does resemble lord venkatesa..u being an ardent devotee of Balaji.. only u could have drawn this strong resemblence.. :)

Unknown said...

fine. it happens to many as if he has seen the same somewhere but were unable to corelate immediately.