How do I describe this chaos? I sometimes think : this is what all my education was about. Advertisements for some programs I am going to watch appear in some dreams. Sometimes they fit some agendas and at others – they don’t. There are many people vying for attention, for time – some of them in legitimate and others in not so legitimate ways. Does stoicism help? No, it doesn’t. If there was a time when I might have put more things into the bracket ( things which I can control)- albeit with delusional propensity- most of them started to shift into the bracket : (things beyond my control): and this has been kind of a linear progression. With time, you only start learning to say yes to everything. Legitimate or not. Proper or improper. Wisdom to know the difference is just that: be a silent witness.
Self help gurus will make you believe anything. That’s what business runs on. Projecting a Utopia. Stay for enough long and you might even start feeling the change in the environment. And walk a few steps: you meet Dostoevsky, Sartre,Kafka, Nietzsche or yourself.
My students stayed ten minutes after the class though they had studied only for forty minutes in which we had completed the workbook assignments on coordinate Geometry. They wanted to stay longer after the class because they were listening to Bhojpuri songs and watching reels using Wifi, something they can’t do at home. I was washing the tablecloth which is actually a plastic cover. It was sticky because of the tea which had fallen on it. It made it difficult to teach. I removed it. I was searching for the brush in the bathroom which has no electric power. I used a smartphone torch. I couldn’t find it anywhere. My mother also had no clue about it. I used the one from her bathroom. After hanging it for drying I asked my students to stop browsing the internet. The elder was already complaining about being tired. Wanted to leave immediately after arriving. The younger student looked into the window mirror a few times. It wasn’t difficult to engage them into the lesson because it was easy to explain. To find the Cartesian Coordinates for various points and to delineate whether they belonged to first, second , third or fourth quadrants was interesting enough for them though it was difficult to ask them to stop spending time in scrolling through their Instagram feed.
Cartesian geometry is the bridge that finally allowed mathematicians to “see” numbers and “calculate” shapes. Before this, Algebra (numbers/equations) and Geometry (shapes/lines) were treated as two completely separate worlds.
1. The Core Concept: The Coordinate Plane
The system relies on two perpendicular axes: the horizontal x-axis and the vertical y-axis. Their intersection is the Origin (0,0).
By using these axes, any point in space can be described by a pair of numbers (x, y). This allows us to turn a geometric shape, like a circle, into an algebraic equation, like:
2. How René Descartes “Dreamed” It Up
The legend of how Descartes (1596–1650) invented the system is one of the most famous stories in science.
As a sickly young man, Descartes was allowed to stay in bed until noon at his Jesuit college. One morning, while watching a fly crawl across the ceiling of his room, he realized he could describe the fly’s exact position at any moment using just two numbers: its distance from the two adjacent walls.
By treating the corner of the ceiling as the “Origin,” he realized he could map the fly’s entire flight path as a series of mathematical coordinates. In 1637, he published these ideas in La Géométrie.
3. Where is it used today?
It is almost impossible to find a modern technology that doesn’t rely on Cartesian geometry.
* Computer Graphics & Gaming: Every pixel on your screen has an x and y coordinate. In 3D gaming, we add a z-axis for depth.
* GPS & Navigation: Global positioning uses a spherical version of this coordinate system (latitude and longitude) to pin down your location.
* Engineering & Architecture: From building bridges to 3D printing, Cartesian coordinates guide the machines and the blueprints.
* Data Science: Graphs and charts (scatter plots, line graphs) are all built on the Cartesian plane to visualize trends in data.
Etymology: “Cartesian”
The word Cartesian is simply the adjective form of the Latinized version of Descartes’ name: Renatus Cartesius.
Instagram’s origin story is a classic example of “pivoting”—taking a complicated, failing idea and stripping it down to the one thing people actually liked.
1. The Beginning: Burbn (2010)
In early 2010, Kevin Systrom, a Stanford graduate, developed an app called Burbn. It was a “check-in” app (similar to Foursquare) that allowed users to post plans, check into locations, and share photos.
The problem? It was too cluttered and complicated. However, Systrom noticed that while users ignored the check-in features, they were obsessed with sharing photos.
2. The Pivot to Instagram (October 6, 2010)
Systrom teamed up with Mike Krieger. Together, they stripped Burbn down to its bare essentials: photos, comments, and likes. * The Filter Innovation: At the time, mobile phone cameras were quite poor. Systrom’s girlfriend mentioned she wouldn’t post her photos because they didn’t look good. This led to the creation of filters (like “X-Pro II”), which allowed users to give their low-quality mobile shots a professional, vintage look.
* Launch: Instagram launched on the Apple App Store on October 6, 2010. It gained 25,000 users in a single day.
3. Key Milestones in Evolution
| Year | Milestone |
|—|—|
| 2012 | The $1 Billion Acquisition: Facebook (now Meta) bought Instagram when it had only 13 employees. This is considered one of the most successful acquisitions in tech history. |
| 2013 | Video Support: Instagram introduced 15-second videos to compete with the rising popularity of Vine. |
| 2016 | Stories: In a direct move to compete with Snapchat, Instagram launched “Stories,” which disappear after 24 hours. This fundamentally changed how people used the app. |
| 2018 | Founder Departure: Systrom and Krieger left the company due to reported tensions with Mark Zuckerberg regarding the app’s direction. |
| 2020 | Reels: Launched globally to compete with the explosive growth of TikTok, shifting the app’s focus toward short-form video content. |
4. From “Square Photo App” to “Everything App”
Instagram has evolved from a simple chronological feed of square photos into an e-commerce and entertainment engine.
* Algorithm Shift: In 2016, it moved away from a chronological feed to an algorithmic one, prioritizing “engagement” over time.
* Monetization: It evolved from a no-ad platform to a shopping destination, with “Shop” tabs and integrated advertising.
Grandmother has been coughing since she returned from the ceremony. It’s not something rare nor her moaning because of pain. It’s not just distracting. It will be a gross understatement for a decade and half long of distractions. Maybe two decades. I warmed up water for her. Served food for her. She had just a bit of it. Served her ginger tea when I made it for father as well. Served tea for parents and grandmother after mother returned from work. Also served water. Moving the gas cylinder up and down in the kitchen a few times because of lack of availability of the gas cylinders has become a recurring feature now. There are hardly any glasses to serve water with. It’s also a recurring feature. Maids arrive almost in the evening. It’s also a recurring feature similar to their appearance just once per day. She didn’t wash the kettle properly. She can’t wash utensils properly. There was a time when I used to think that bringing it to the attention of my mother mattered.
Now it doesn’t. Most of the time you’re boiling milk, water or other food with a pinch of detergent. My parents were always fond of not washing them with detergents. Just wash them briefly with water and keep cups: feeds some strange fantasy of theirs. Those who have food in the pots used by you become subordinate to you or magically attracted to you. A formula propagated in most Hindu communities where none of them qualify for being lords as per the scriptures but all of them fancy it anyway.
Stranger than fiction is reality. Half baked study of Astrology has conditioned some of them to some patterns which might be considered conventions at best. If investigated thoroughly they might turn out to be ludicrous nonsense at best though they find it to be better than being completely blind.
I served warm water out of the geyser. It gets cold and then I again served it. Used rice from the fridge to serve him which are found to be more than he needed. Filled sugar up into the box. Switched light off in the store room. Moved utensils out of the kitchen to wash basin.
The Feedback WordPress Never Gives:
This is a compelling piece of “Creative Non-fiction.” You’ve woven a bridge between the abstract, philosophical world of Descartes and Nietzsche and the gritty, domestic reality of sticky tablecloths and detergent-less cups.
1. Feedback
* The Contrast: The greatest strength of this article is the jarring shift between the intellectual history (the origin of Cartesian geometry and Instagram) and the immediate chaos of your home life. It illustrates your point about “stoicism not helping”—you are teaching the “bridge” between algebra and geometry while your students are more interested in the “bridge” of free Wi-Fi and Bhojpuri songs.
* The Narrative Voice: Your voice is weary but observant. The transition where you mention moving from a Jesuit college bed (Descartes) to a dark bathroom searching for a brush with a smartphone torch is excellent. It shows that while geometry is a “Utopia” of order, life is a “mess” of unwashed kettles.
* The “Subordinate” Theory: The section about the “strange fantasy” of not washing cups with detergent is a fascinating piece of cultural observation. It adds a layer of psychological tension to the domestic duties you perform.
* Integration: The informational sections about Instagram and Descartes feel like “anchor points.” They represent the “education” you mention in the first paragraph—the structured world that the “chaos” of reality is constantly trying to overwrite.
2. Suggested Titles
Depending on where you want to place the emphasis, here are a few options:
* Philosophical/Literary: The Geometry of Chaos: From Descartes to Detergent
* Reflective: A Silent Witness to the Grid: Between Instagram and the Origin
* Gritty/Modern: Bhojpuri Songs and Cartesian Planes: Notes from a Sticky Tablecloth
* Thematic: The Coordinate of Beyond Control: A Linear Progression
3. Structural Recommendation
The article works well as a “collage.” However, to make it even punchier, you might consider interspersing the factual segments more tightly with the narrative. For example, placing the “Coordinate Plane” section right after you describe your students finding points in the four quadrants would emphasize the irony of the moment.



