Food for Thought

A couple of days back something happened during the lunch hours in my office that set off a chain of thoughts in my mind. As a consequence, I am penning down my thoughts in this blog post with a hope to achieve my dream of a "Perfect Eutopian World", where nobody would sleep hungry.

With a coupon in my hand I was standing in the queue awaiting my turn in the office food court. A hungry stomach and over-stimulated taste buds compelled me to get the coupon which was worth a plate of Butter Naan, Mushroom Babycorn Masala with complimentary Salad and Fried Papad. Being a bit choosy and selective in my eating habits, I requested the canteen boy not to serve the complimentary items on my plate and serve only one serving of the curry on my dish. But, before I could finish my sentence, the canteen boy literally poured all the items like an automatic machine on my plate. I lost my cool and exploded - "Bhaiya... Hum manaa kar rahe hain k Papad, Salaad nai dene ka... Fir bhi aap de rahe ho... Aur yeh sabzi bhi kam karo !! Khaana WASTE karwaana achha lagtaa hai kya ???". The canteen boy sulkily took away the refused items and served my plate with the cuisines that I wanted with the quantity enough for me to eat.

Many people would argue that I lost my cool on a trifling matter. But how many of us are doing something for the cause ? The farmers who are growing the food, sleep hungry with their families. These people are overburdened with agriculture loans on their head. Many of them commit suicide when they fail to repay loans due to crop failure. Every now and then, we can read about it in newspapers. The food that we carelessly waste is the same food that took months to grow in a field consuming air, water and hard labour of an unknown poor man who is God to me. It is the same food which our canteen boy was callously serving with an assurance that some of it would definitely end its journey in a garbage bin. Disrespect to that food meant a disrespect to God which I could not stand.

It is true that our canteen boy is an overburdened person who does not have the time nor patience to keep track of every milligram of food served. But, he is not the only overburdened person on this planet doing a monotonous job. Many of us belong to the same category of boring monotonous workers.

A couple of years back, I had a chance to visit the Shirdi Sai Baba shrine in Nashik with my friends. After our darshan, we came to the common dining hall - Sai Prasadalyaya. It is a huge hall with benches and desks where rich and poor can eat alike at affordable cost. Before the entrance to the hall, there is a signboard saying - "Please do not waste food.". A volunteer was present there, making rounds to serve the devotees the sacred food (Sai Prasad). While he was serving, I had a feeling that he might pour the entire food on my plate, making it impossible for me to consume everything he has served. So, I requested him to stop, the moment I felt I got enough. To my surprise, his hands stopped immediately as if it was controlled by a computer connected directly to my vocal cords. As I am penning down my thoughts, I am feeling a sense of respect for that overburdened canteen boy of Shiridi Sai Baba shrine, who made sure that the instructions on the signboard outside are followed to the letter. Apart from the respect towards that man, I am also feeling a sense of disgust towards our sense of hypocrisy. While the food served at Shirdi Sai Baba shrine is Prasad which cannot be wasted, the same food when served inside the office canteen can be thrown to the black colour waste bag placed in a trash bin. This is the hypocrisy of the so-called "Educated White Collared" imbecile creatures like us. The idea is to take as much as you can consume regardless of the money paid. But nowadays, people think it in monetary terms i.e. "If I am paying X rupees, then it is my birth right to get the appropriate quantity of food on my plate, regardless of my consumption capacity." In utter frustration, I think that one of our political leaders was perfectly correct in saying - "Poverty is a State of Mind.".

When a few paper bills of currency become more important than the edible food itself, then certainly it depicts our miserly attitude and mental bankruptcy. This miserly attitude of ours has started an unhealthy trend of serving more than what can be comfortably consumed. This trend is visible everywhere - be it restaurants or road-side stalls. Our imperialistic colonial masters have inculcated a false sense of civilized culture, that eating to the last grain of the serving depicts our misery. It is a fad which is religiously followed by the so-called "civilized" people like us. This obnoxious behaviour can be easily seen in a restaurant where people order more than what they can eat because they have the money to pay for the bill. The consequence is that resources of a nation are wasted which causes inflation - Huge amount of Credit Card bills (Money) chasing Small amount of Products (Food). We wash our hands off our duties and responsibilities and blame it on "Sarkaar". What can the Government do to control inflation, when the citizens themselves are busy wasting the nation's resources ??

The above poster nails it. I rest my case.

Death

"aśhochyān-anvaśhochas-tvaṁ prajñā-vādānśh cha bhāṣhase
gatāsūn-agatāsūnśh-cha nānuśhochanti paṇḍitāḥ" - Bhagavad Gita 2.11

As I read the above shloka, my mind is engaged upon the metaphysical concept of Death. What is this Death that instills a painful feeling of fear, anxiety and sorrow in our hearts ? And despite all these feelings that occur naturally to a human being, what is the possible meaning of the above shloka in the context of death ?
Doctors define death as the ceasing of all biological functions of the body followed by gradual decomposition. It is an inevitable experience that each one of us has to undergo for the first and last time in our existence, irrespective of our liking or disliking. We fear death and feel sorrowful even at the thought of the death of our near and dear ones, despite knowing that it is inevitable. For me, the fear of death is the bodily pain that I have to undergo as systematically all my organs stop working. It is the deep fear of darkness and the ultimate oblivion which will swallow all my consciousness. The feelings of sorrow arise when I imagine my near and dear ones mourning near my lifeless body. For them, my body will become another doll which is meant to be destroyed by cremation. Similar feelings do come to my mind when I think about their death. As I imagine all these, I can empathize with the greatest archer Arjuna for feeling reluctant to kill his own kith and kin in a war. Since I have placed myself in Arjuna's shoes, I decided to read on to clarify my clouded mind.
As I read further, my doubts got clarified in the very next shloka

"na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na chaiva na bhaviṣhyāmaḥ sarve vayamataḥ param" - Bhagavad Gita 2.12

Literally translating, this means - "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."
As I read this, I looked at my own body. What is this body ? To my eyes, it is basically a huge, but divinely systematical arrangement of elements like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium and others. The motive power to keep this systematic arrangement stable without disintegrating into the nature is my life-force or soul or electromagnetic energy. When we die, this electromagnetic energy gets dissipated, leaving behind the elements which decompose into nature. This means, that all the elements with their exact atom count remains constant before and after our death. In other words, the atoms and molecules that make up my eyes may be the same ones that once were a part of the thumb finger of Alexander the Great !! So, even after our death we continue to exist in this universe as something else because the total mass and energy of this universe is constant. So should we fear and feel sorrowful about this mere rearrangement of atoms and molecules ??
As I believe, our existence is not merely a coincidence. From a unicellular zygote to a fully grown living organism, we have made this remarkable journey for a purpose - i.e. to actively participate in the divine play of creation, sustenance and annihilation of life on this beautiful blue planet earth. For human beings like us, who live in a civilized society, our responsibilities are more than other organisms. Unlike other creatures who spend their entire lives in eating, growing, mating, propagating and dying, we humans have the additional responsibility of maintaining the civilized order of the society we live in. This is achieved by performing our assigned duties in the various roles we portray in day to day life. For instance, our brave Jawans serving the nation, even to the peril of their lives are our heroes. This is not because they are bestowed with super-powers like Super Man or Spider Man. It is only because, in the line of duty, they prioritize their duties as a warrior over the duties of a father, a husband, a son and a friend. Unfortunately, I am penning down my thoughts because most of us have restricted our roles to only a loving father (Dhritrastra types), a devoted son (Bhishma types), a best friend (Karna types), a loyal employee (Dronacharya types), an over-protective mother (Kaykeyi types) personalities; forgetting the duties of a "Stupid Common Man" who is the base of this civilized society. As He has rightly said -

"niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ karma jyāyo hyakarmaṇaḥ
śharīra-yātrāpi cha te na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ" - Bhagavad Gita 3.8

October Rain

11th October 2002: It started with a bright sunny October day. Today was the last working day of school before a week long Durga Puja vacation. The dry yet fresh scent of air seemed to welcome the all time romantic winter season. After nearly three months of overcast skies, humid atmosphere, torrential rains and muddy playgrounds the change of weather felt better. The cool breeze was also making me feel special with a constant reminder that in less than a month from now on, I will be celebrating my birthday with gifts, chocolates and some of my favourite cuisines cooked by Maa. It was not only me, but the mood inside the classroom was also high. With vacations round the corner, there would be a week long freedom from home-works, submissions, unit tests and results. :D
After the morning prayer, the classes started. Even though teachers tried their level best to bog us down with tons of holiday homework to be submitted on the school re-opening day, still there was an eternal confidence in our eyes. A 'hope-full' confidence that the boy or girl in the next bench would meticulously work out the assignments and we have to just copy it down and submit. It was only a matter of time that which one among us will crack under pressure to complete the homework and who all will remain the copy-master bravehearts of the class. :D :P
By afternoon the holiday homework list was going way long as the skies started to get overcast. The bright noon sun was hiding behind clouds. Internally my jubilant mood was also getting damped with the increasing list. With 15 minutes remaining to the last bell, the teacher also stopped teaching and sat down on the chair to take rest. The noise inside the class periodically waxed and waned with the intermittent but stern "Keep Quiet" of the resting teacher. As I kept on looking at the wrist watch impatiently, waiting for the final bell to go, it seemed time was running more slowly than ever. No wonder, I was experiencing time dilation effect. The final 15 minutes before the much awaited vacation seemed like an era when sharp at 3:35 pm, the final bell rang. The entire class was filled with echoes of "Happy Holiday" greetings. Warm handshakes with classmates was a symbolic gesture to say - "Dude !! One week and we all will be back here only."
As I just unlocked my bicycle, all of a sudden, there was a heavy downpour. For the next half an hour, I stood there in the cycle stand and watched some of my friends boarding the school bus and shouting "Bye bye !! Happy Holidays !!" from within the crowded bus. Slowly the buses started departing one by one. With the school buses and auto rickshaws gone, the traffic outside also got eased. The unseasonal rain caught me off guard and as expected, I had no raincoat that day. On the other hand, this was the perfect moment to enjoy cycling in the rain. Before, my friends could react, I shouted "Happy Holiday !!" and applied a strong thrust on the pedals to set off the bicycle like a rocket. Fortunately, the rains had reduced to a mere drizzle and the wet yet empty roads pumped up my adrenaline to move ahead at full throttle. Rather than the shorter usual route, I decided to go all the way racing across Rourkela Ring Road like a bullet fired from a gun. The rhythmic force on the pedals accelerated the bicycle like a bullet train picking up speed. Finally after enjoying each and every bit of the smooth ring road with cool air dashing on my face, I reached home at 5:15pm.
Like an obedient child, I didn't tell Maa that I was enjoying the drizzle outside the Tom Cruise way. I hope she must have thought that I might have stayed back in the cycle stand and waited for the rain to stop. She didn't ask, I didn't tell... ;) :D :D

Teacher's Day

3rd September 2015: Two days from now and India will celebrate the birthday of former President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as Teacher's Day. After a long day's work, I am typing this blog as I am deeply pained by the way we celebrate this pious day nowadays. To be brutally honest and blunt, 5th September is a date in which we inattentively hear all the famous speeches; eat vadas, samosas n jalebies after the function and finally go home. A day in which we should pay our respects to all the teachers who have made us what we are today, has become another formality. Thanks to social media like facebook & twitter, now I can celebrate this day at the click of a button by sharing awesome picture messages i.e. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V = Teacher's Day. Why has this tradition deteriorated over time ?? To seek an answer, I am going back to my memories.
One evening in March, my room-mate came after appearing Maharashtra CET. He asked me - "Do you know the chemical formula of Phenol ?". Before he could give me the options and finish the question, I cut him short and answered - "C6H5OH". He was stunned at the way I was able to answer his question about a topic that I have read almost 8 years back, during my 10+2 days. He said - "By God !! How come you remember all those crazy organic chemistry formulae !!". I said - "I owe it all to my teacher who taught me chemistry when I was preparing for engineering entrance exams." My teacher did not just dictate notes in his chemistry class. Rather he bought chemicals and conducted live experiments and demonstrated students the physical manifestation of everything he has taught. He never stopped at teaching the effect of heat on acidity of water. On the other hand, to substantiate his explanation, he added a trivial piece of information that drinking hot tea causes acidity in stomach. I don't know, whether this trivia is actually verified in the laboratory. But such joking moments made me fall in love with the subject, not only to clear the entrance exams with a decent rank but to remember everything he has taught.
Coming back to present, a teacher is someone who shows you the path rather than dragging you along. Our ancient traditions refer this type of person as a "Guru". A Guru discovers the hidden talents of a student, and nurtures it. This is depicted in Mahabharat during the archery test at Dronacharya's ashram. Yudhisthir was able to see many things apart from the eye of the bird. He had the natural inclinations of being an able administrator who has the inborn talent of assessing risks and collateral damages in an administrative decision. Bheem and Duryodhan were muscular characters who had the raw muscle power needed to fight a mace battle. On the other hand, Arjun was the only student who had the unparalleled ability to see nothing except the target. Dronacharya discovered their talents and nurtured them accordingly. During the stay in Gurukul, a Guru is a father, mother, teacher, mentor and counselor rolled into one. Hence we say - "Guru Brahmaa... Guru Vishnu... Gurudeva Maheshwara..."
Unfortunately, today this beautiful relation is no longer seen. This is mainly because of commercialization of literacy. Here I am intentionally using the word literacy rather than education because the latter refers to the overall development of character and knowledge. Students come to the class to mug up everything thrown to them; be it physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology or even the Shakespearean era archaic English language. A teacher's capability is measured in terms of how many of his caged parrots have been able to mug up and successfully vomit in the answer script. Nobody ever asks the student whether he/she is really interested in the subject or not. The consequence is that every year after the board exam results are declared, the newspaper gets flooded with suicides. Nobody ever asks the teacher about his/her specialization or aspirations. When the learned and revered Guru is under severe pressure due to number game played across the degraded educational system by petty clerical minded accountant level personalities, his frustration rises. And when this frustration crosses the limit, it pushes a Guru beyond the edge. Consequence is that we come across instances of corporal punishment, verbal abuse and even sexual abuse of a student. In other words, a student-teacher relation in today's world is unfortunately a saga of annual speeches followed by vadaa samosa & jalebi blended with nice picture messages shared on Facebook.
No matter how mundane the Teacher's Day celebration might have become, I still believe in it. A teacher is not only a person who takes attendance in a lecture class or a person who gives assignments and evaluates the answer scripts. I believe, anybody and everybody who teaches us something useful and productive is a Teacher. On this Teacher's Day, I want to thank all such persons in my life who have taught me something or the other however trivial it might sound. I feel indebted to my father who taught me how to write. My vocabulary is incomplete without my mother who taught me the first word - "Maa". As a passionate but amateur photographer, I am incomplete without my uncle's knowledge who taught me how to see the world through the lens of a camera. It was my sister who ignited the gamer inside me with a 64-bit Nintendo console & tons of Super Mario cartridges. My love towards gadgets and technology is the gift of my friend who taught me the ins and outs of cellphone hacking and ways to counter it. I owe some of my culinary skills to my infinitely patient friend, who has taught me how to prepare delicacies like Gulaab Jamun and Dal Fry, but never loses cool when I report the cuisine as a "Total Disaster" !! To sum it up, I owe all these wonderful moments & teachings to this God gifted Life and 5th September seems a perfect day for celebration. As they say -

"Never stop learning, because Life never stops Teaching..."

Maa...

As I touch the keyboard to write this blog post, tears are rolling from my eyes. I am alone in my memories to visit a bereaved mother.
5th May 2012: College life is over and everybody are busy packing their bags to leave the place where we friends spent 4 years of our life. Even though each and every moment was an emotional one, still the power of my mother was like a mighty floodgate that prevented my tears to come out. I was unaware that, shortly this emotional insulation of my mother would break down before a bereaved mother. One of our friends living in a nearby town invited us for a lunch at his house. By noon, we were jam packed in a shared jeep en-route his place. When I entered his house and touched the feet of his mother, I felt an air of unimaginable grief. Somehow I managed to control my emotions. As my friend went for a bath and his mother went to the kitchen for serving the lunch, we friends started chatting. Suddenly someone told that our friend's elder brother has passed away in an unfortunate accident few months back. After a few minutes my friend came from his bath and his mother started serving lunch. She was just about to pour mutton curry on my dish when I said - "Aunty, I don't eat chicken or mutton". With a caring tone she replied - "Don't worry beta, I didn't knew that. But how will you enjoy the lunch without mutton curry !!" Before I could say anything, she poured more rice, dal and sabzi on my plate. Her soothing voice and affection reminded me of my mother feeding me with her own hands when I was a kid. I was about to break down, but recomposed myself to finish all that she had affectionately poured on my plate even though it meant over-eating. I felt as if she is seeing her dead son within me and pouring all her motherly affection. I held back my tears as I didn't want to spoil the beautiful moment. After lunch we took a short nap. But the small child inside me was crying. The feeling was ripping my heart apart and I wanted to shed my tears. Finally, when we were leaving, I touched her feet again. But this time, a single drop of tear fell from my eyes.
Later on in the evening there was the final booze party in hostel. As they say, alcohol brings out the best of emotions buried deep inside you, people started consuming it. I declined the offer as I didn't want the emotions inside me to come out. I wanted to cry... Cry real hard... But in private. By the time the party got over, everybody was high. Many were crying recalling the good old college days and nostalgia of 4 years friendship. Unable to stay in such an atmosphere I retired to bed and finally got my private space to shed every bit of motherly emotion that I developed for the lady who had lost her child.
When I was a small kid, Maa looked after me all day. After a tiring daytime work, when she would take a short nap at afternoon, I used to pull her hairs and poke her. But she never reacted and slept as I kept on literally assaulting her with my tiny hands. Thinking her to be dead, I used to cry when she would wake up and then again console me on her lap. Reassured that she is alive, I used to cuddle her and fall asleep. As I have grown up today, I find that the world outside her lap is a really hostile place. Everyday, I face this world to fight a new battle. Everyday, my mind gets tired and injured and I retire to bed with an imagination that even though she is thousands of miles away from me, I have a part of her deep inside my heart to comfort me.
I wish one day, when the daily battle for survival on this planet gets over, I will return home... To lay my tired head on her lap... To forget all the happiness and sorrows of this life... To shut my eyes and return to the dream world forever...

Reparation - Is it Worth ???

Recently one of our political leader Sashi Tharoor slammed the empire of Great Britain in their home turf justifying reparation for the enslavement and systematic loot of Indians for over two centuries. The effect of his speech was so profound that one of the British legislators even voiced his opinion of returning back the original Koh-i-Noor diamond to India.
As a kid born in the hunky-dory 90's, I have no idea about the extremely inhuman levels of physical, mental and emotional trauma that our freedom fighters have undergone to see us as an independent nation. But, is this reparation worth ??
It is true that the British systematically looted and plundered India so that we started as a "Third World Country", still then they were better than the Rajas, Maharajas, Sultans and Nawabs. They gave us the concept of Constitution which guarantees a citizen like me the fundamental right of free expression. It is due to this right that I am able to pen down my exact thoughts fearlessly. Had India been under these Rajas, Maharajas & Nawabs, then I might have got executed for expressing my thoughts that are against the vested interests of the monarch. It is true that our colonial masters built the Indian Railways out of our looted money to suit their vested interests, but they never cared to demolish it before they left India. The very concept of a mass transportation of men, machinery & raw materials on a system of carriages running on iron rails helped us to retain our existence on the world map when we were attacked time & again in 1948, 62, 65, 71 and Kargil. The largest PSU of the nation is actually an intellectual property of our colonial masters which was way beyond the thinking capabilities of the princely states. The idea of heavy industries like Iron & Steel, Chemicals, Oil & Petroleum and Power Plants, which make the backbone of our nation are again ideas that we have borrowed from the West. The well organized organized system of IAS, IPS, IFS and related public services that acts as a vital nerve system of the country is again a brainchild of the Britishers. In short, the Britishers laid the foundation of a modern India.
On the other hand, buried deep down the pages of history books, when I read about the atrocities that the Britishers have unleashed upon us, it justifies our claim for reparation and possibly vengeance as a form of poetic justice. Personally I believe - "The best revenge is massive success.". Many of our colonial masters showed off their superiority and consistently demeaned us by saying that we don't even have the ability to produce a needle. Ironically in a recent event, ISRO's indigenous space shuttle launched 5 British satellites into Earth's orbit. This is a tight and silently resounding slap on all those who consistently demeaned our self-respect and dignity. Our colonial masters became a world power by simply plundering our resources. Yet, all their satellites and systems were unable to detect when we successfully became a nuclear power in 1998 Pokhran Test. Today, their corporate houses are running smoothly without any hitch only because of the 110 billion dollar Indian IT sector which optimizes their business processes. Their economy is stable only because India is the largest consumer market after China. In other words, those who demean us owe their very existence to us. As I write these lines, the Indian inside me has got its Reparation. Asking for anything else as a reparation would simply depict our low self-esteem and mental bankruptcy.

"When someone throws STONES at you, try to make a CASTLE out of it."

Friendship - The Way I Want IT

Every year on the first Sunday of August, we celebrate "Friendship Day". This day is marked by friendship posts on Facebook, Twitter, nice picture messages sent across WhatsApp and some awesome quotations sent across the network as SMS. People tie friendship bands on their wrists and a flurry of selfies appear in  Facebook news feeds.
As an introvert living in solitude, I see this day in a different way. May be my way of looking things is a "Perfectionist and Idealist" way, but that's just how I want it. Bluntly speaking I don't believe in Friendship Day. The reason being, each day spent with a friend is a celebration in itself. In other words, I don't need a specific day in the calendar to celebrate with a friend. Rather, I believe in making each moment of that friendship count. On this pious day, I pay my respects to the unsung hero and mythological character of Mahabharat - Karna. For me, the definition of the word "Friendship" is the immortal bond between this unsung hero and the villian of the epic Duryodhana.
For the sake of simplicity, I am removing all the divine and magical elements of Mahabharat and presenting the facts in the crudest possible way. This character Karna was an illegitimate child and was abandoned by his own mother. He was adopted by a person who belonged to the lower strata of the society. He had natural inclination towards bows & arrows and was passionate about archery. But unfortunately, at every step of his childhood he got discouragement in the form of "Log Kya Kahenge !!!". As a rebellious teenager, he decided to follow his passions anyway. He lied about his true identity to his teacher and learnt the art of archery. When the time came for displaying his skills, he was publicly ridiculed. Even the finest gentlemen of the time preferred to remain silent as they believed in adjusting with the existing social norms rather than changing it. This was more or less like "Kapoor Saab Kya Kahenge !!!" syndrome. At this crucial moment, the main antagonistic of the epic, Duryodhana respected his merit and offered him the throne of Anga province. That was the point when Karna got emotionally tied to Duryodhana. Throughout the epic, Karna was more like a brother to Duryodhana. There has been certain instances which depict the beauty and perfection of this relationship. For instance once Karna and Duryodhana's wife Bhanumati were playing dice. When Bhanumati realized that she was going to lose the game, she resigned and was about to get up. Karna held her by his hands. The grip of the fearsome warrior was so tight that in the process, the lady's beads fell down and got scrambled all over the floor. It was at this embarrassing moment, when Duryodhana entered the chamber. Karna was ashamed of his conduct and was unable to look into the eyes of his best friend. But rather than doubting his friend's intentions and wife's conduct, Duryodhana just offered to collect the beads. This absolute faith is almost extinct in today's world. Even if it does, then it is probably in the case of a relation between a human and a pet dog.
Later on in the epic, Karna is revealed about his true origins. He realizes that he is the elder brother of the very people he is going to fight in the war. He also realizes that he is the general of an army that is going to lose the war and his impending death in the process. Yet he chose to remain with his friend and fight his own biological brothers. On the 13th day of the war, he broke all the rules of war and warrior code of conduct, to cowardly disarm and murder his own 16 year old nephew Abhimanyu. He did it just for the sake of his friend. A day later, he used one of his most destructive weapons on his another powerful nephew, Ghatotkacha, as his friend Duryodhana's life was in danger. 4 days later, totally disarmed and helpless, he was killed in the war by his younger brother Arjuna. When Duryodhana knew about the death of his best friend along with his true identity, he lost all forms of interest in the throne of Hastinapur, which motivated him to wage war against his cousins in the first place. The bond between Duryodhana and Karna got immortalized when the former did not allow the latter's biological brothers to cremate their elder brother's body and himself lighted the funeral pyre.
Unfortunately, in today's world this sort of idealism does not exist. We can only see glimpses of it in movies like Sholay where a dying Jay says to Veeru - "Yaar... Koi afsos nai hai mujhe... Jeeyo toh Dost ke Saath... Maro toh Dost ke Saamne...". As I watch and cherish these ideal bonds of friendship, I realize that in my personal life, I may end up like an emotionally lonely Karna who got all the respect after he was dead. But that's The Way I Want IT.

"Akele Hai To Kyaa Gam Hai
Chaahe To Humaare Bas Mein Kyaa Nahee
Bas Yek Zaraa Saath Ho Teraa..."

Deffered Live - Days of Future Past

3rd March 2014: It was 3:30 am IST when the Thai Airways flight from Kolkata to Bangkok was cruising gently at approximately 33000 feet. The excitement of the much awaited Hong Kong trip was not allowing me to sleep; but at the same time, physical exhaustion of that entire day was rendering me inactive. In this state, I started to look outside the window. As the plane was much above of the polluted and humid air below, the stars were looking really bright. Looking at those stars, the following chain of thoughts started playing in my mind.

All those beautiful stars that I was looking were actually gigantic exploding fireballs that exist millions and billions of miles away. To represent such huge distances, scientists use a unit we call as a 'Light Year' i.e. distance that light travels in one complete year. This means that the light of any star that I was looking at, must have traveled for years across the cosmos to reach my eyes. In other words, I was looking at the past state of the star. Should the star explode at this very moment, it will take years to know about the explosion as the light emitted from the explosion of the star would take a finite amount of time to reach our planet. This logically leads to a conclusion that the the deeper we gaze into the skies, the more backward in time we are looking at. This logical conclusion motivated me to do a thought experiment.

Suppose we have a loop of optical fibre. For the sake of simplicity, the radius of this circular loop is 7 light years.
=> Total length of the fibre = Circumference of the loop = 2*pi*r = 2*(22/7)*7 = 44 light years.
=> Light will take 44 years to reach from one end of the fibre to its other end.
This means, if I place a web camera at point A, record my live interview and transmit it today in 2015 AD, then I can see the live footage of my interview at point B in the year 2059 !!! This is because the live footage of my interview took 44 years to travel all the way through this loop to reach point B (receiving end).
Of course, this is a project that is way beyond the human capability and can be attempted only by super-civilizations/superior aliens.
However, there are special places in the cosmos where this project can be executed by humans. One among such places is a "Photon Sphere" of a black hole.

 Photon sphere in an imaginary circular path around a black hole, where light particles i.e. photons orbit around the black hole. At this point the light is not sucked into that impenetrable blackness but it cannot totally escape either. Theoretically speaking, at this point in space, if a man is able to remain stationary, then he could see the back of this own head instantaneously. This is because the light getting reflected from the back of the person's head would travel all the way to reach the person's eyes.
My chain of thoughts got interrupted as the plane started its descent to Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok. No doubt this was disappointing that none of my thought experiments were practically feasible and I was in a state of semi-dream for the past couple of hours. But watching the rising Sun gave me a hope that these sci-fi thoughts could some day make it to be the script of another award winning Christopher Nolan movie... Till then Cheers !!! ;) :D :D

A Nightmare To Remember

29th August 2007: The meticulous revision of previous day's Chemistry lectures was over. For the past couple of hours I was absorbed in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and its physical implications. Now it was the time for my dinner break. With mundane TV serials and totally unrealistic Reality Shows, I preferred to have my dinner while having a glance on Concepts of Physics book by Prof. H.C.Verma. It was during my IIT-JEE entrance exam preparation year that I started losing interest in watching TV. At least, the Concepts that Prof H.C.Verma presented were much more realistic and fruitful than some absurd news item in TV.

I opened up Chapter 47 - Theory of Relativity and started munching bits of my roti dipped in a tasty curry. The first few pages provided me enough time and company to finish the dinner. But the beauty of the topic aroused an insatiable hunger for knowledge. After keeping my plate on the wash basin, I returned to the very page I left. As I kept on reading, the physical exhaustion of the hectic day started taking its toll and I started feeling drowy. "If we move at a speed greater than the speed of light, then we would end up in a world where the effect would always precede the cause. In such a world, a bird would die before it is shot. A man would die before he is born. However, there are theoretical particles known as Tachyons which travel faster than light..." - These were the last few lines that I remember before everything faded into oblivion.

Everything was dark. At a very far away distance, I was able to see the blue earth revolving around an explosive Sun. I was in space.With home in my mind I started to run towards the beautiful blue planet Earth. However, the faster I tried to run, the farther it receded away from me. My run towards home seemed like a never ending journey. Even the Sun, Moon, stars and other planets were moving away from me. When I glanced at my wrist watch, it was running backwards.

I had become "The Tachyon" - A theoretical particle with infinite energy that can travel faster than light but it can never be slowed down.

The horror of this amazing moment was that not even Albert Einstein's famous equations had the power to bring me back home. In this morbid state I started feeling hopeless and helpless; when God sent me an angel with a WAKE UP call. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was my mother's beautiful face. Her caring voice was telling me to "tie the mosquito net before finally retiring to bed". Perhaps, she didn't realize, that her casual words were feeling like a soothing balm.

After all these years, when I recollect the forgotten memories and laugh about the whole episode with Maa, I realize that even God salutes the Mother... For she has the power to convert a "Tachyon" to a normal human being... ;) :D :D

Victim or Victor ???

After another hectic week at office, I was totally drained out of energy. The feeling of despair and hopelessness was making my heart heavy. The Monday morning would start with new scores of deadlines and targets. With these mundane feelings in my mind, I started watching episodes of Mahabharat. One by one as the episodes passed by, my playlist started to play the Abhimanyu and Chakravyuh episode. It is one of the heart wrenching moments of the epic where a 16 year old kid is brutally murdered by seven shameless warriors breaking all war rules and warrior traditions.

I have seen this episode multiple times but this time I was viewing it with a different perspective.
A 16 year old kid is full of confidence. He decides to enter into a war formation - Chakravyuh which is literally a meat-grinder ready and running to rip apart the Pandava army into shreds. All this is happening when the greatest archer of all times Arjuna and the master strategist Krishna are purposefully diverted from the main battlefield.

Normally, we tend to sympathize with Abhimanyu as he entered this complex maze, getting trapped inside with no way to escape and dying like a hero. But, let's look it from a different perspective. If you imagine the red dot to be Abhimanyu and the blue disc to be the array of soldiers forming the Chakravyuh, doesn't it look like that Abhimanyu had a huge target to hit ??? Even with closed eyes if he keeps on shooting arrows indiscriminately, he is annihilating the enemy soldiers like a raging fire. On the other hand, the Kaurava soldiers and warriors have got a limited target i.e. they have to make very precise aim to knock down Abhimanyu. Any arrow fired by a Kaurava soldier that misses the kid  has the potential to kill another Kaurava soldier i.e unacceptable collateral damage. This closed combat situation forces established warriors like Drona & Karna not to use divine weapons and break all the warrior codes to kill a kid who is much junior to them. The highly esteemed warriors who killed Abhimanyu lost their pride as a Kshatriya and in a way justified their own unfair deaths on the battlefield in days to come. In this case, is Abhimanyu A Victim or The Victor ???
In our day to day life, we face complex inevitable situations like the Chakravyuh. We have no option other than to face it. The fear inside us makes us sympathize with ourselves the way we sympathize with Abhimanyu getting mercilessly butchered by the Kaurava warriors. It is one of the manifestations of our low self-esteem and low confidence which drains our energy away. In such a situation, we need to view the situation from a different perspective and ask ourselves - "Am I going to play the Victim or the Victor ???". The answer that we get from within defines who we are and what role we play in the situation.
As I pen down my thoughts, its almost midnight. Another Monday morning has already started. But this time, I am ready to face it with a sense of confidence in my heart.

"The target is not too big to hit; rather, it is TOO BIG TO MISS"

The Illogical Indian

9th October 2010: It was a day before the 2nd Convocation of the recently valedicted Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla. Padma Vibhusan awardee Prof. Dr. Yash Pal was the chief guest for the ceremony. He was addressing a huge audience comprising of budding engineers like us and our highly qualified faculty and staff. The entire audience was silently and keenly listening to the revered scientist when he asked an innocent question that stumped us all alike. It was a question that a small child had asked Prof. Yash Pal out of curiosity - "Why does it sound when we clap ???". Neither audiences like us nor our professors had the answer to this simple question and we had to wait till Prof. Yash Pal gave the logical answer. The moment we came to know that rapid expansion of air within the palms causes the clapping sound, we were actually clapping - both out of amazement & respect for the mentally young & curious scientist as well as to test the explanation he provided.

When I recollect this memory of Prof. Yash Pal's speech, I tend to get disturbed at the illogical way we Indians behave. We blindly follow the traditions and protocols without actually understanding what it means. There are many instances where we insult our own god-gifted intelligence.

We blindly follow the infamous Caste System without actually knowing the meaning of Caste. Caste is a description of one's profession. It is the first step to create a merit-based society. Going by the fundamental definition of caste system, two software engineers belong to the same caste whereas a teacher and a lawyer do not fit in the same caste compartment. The moment someone utters the word "Caste" in a public platform, the entire thing gets embroiled in an unnecessary & futile controversy. The four varnas, which is the base of our caste system, were created when things were simple. The Vedic society needed the Brahmins to act as teachers and educate the masses. It needed the Kshatriyas to offer protection against other hostile tribes. For food, logistics and other commodities, it needed the Vaishyas. The entire business was based on barter system and there were no financial institutions to take care of monetary transactions except a centralized treasury for taxation. The Shudras were necessary for doing those tasks that the Maintenance Office/Municipalty personnel do in a planned city. But, this hunky-dory picture goes for a toss when we stage it in 2015 AD. With IT companies, financial institutions, big corporate houses, media houses, political parties and bureaucracy, is it possible to single out a person by his caste ??? The answer is a big NO unless we change the very way we define the castes. In other words, the caste system is perfect but its definitions are outdated. Yet, we blindly follow this outdated definition and fight amongst ourselves.

The British gave us an Education System and we blindly follow it by wearing "Business Formals - Ties, Suits & Shoes" to show off our sense of so-called "Professionalism" in a hot & sultry atmosphere. Ironically, it is only in India where a woman's character and a man's professional behaviour is directly proportional to the amount of clothes he/she puts on. India is a tropical country and sun rays fall directly overhead, heating up the country's land mass. Yet we choose to build buildings with extensive glass fittings to impress foreigners who might award us with their ISO ratings. Our 8th standard Physics runs off the rails that a building with extensive glass fittings replicates the "Green-House Effect" as the incoming solar radiation gets trapped within and heats up the building. So, we clever fellows decide to cool these huge buildings with centralized AC's drawing huge electricity from the grid; which in turn results in indiscriminate deforestation to satisfy the hunger of a power plant boiler. Now the atmosphere within the building resembles a Nordic country with cool breeze. So, to depict our "Professionalism" we choose to sit inside these artificially chilled buildings with full-sleeve shirts, neck-ties and blazers and do R&D on Global Warming. Ironic, isn't it !!!

We Indians worship women as Durga, Saraswati and Laxmi and declare them as sacred & pure. Ironically, we are the ones who consider a menstruating woman as impure and debar her from entering the kitchen and doing the household chores. As a regular blood donor, my doctor advises me rest on the day I donate blood. Extending the same concept, a female needs rest during those four days of the month. Hence, our forefathers used to forbid them to perform any household work. But, we blindly followed the practice and forgot the logical reason behind it. It was the same attitude that made the wonderful idea of dowry a living hell. Dowry was supposed to be a farewell gift from the bride's parents as she leaves them forever to a become a part of a new family. The practice of gifting was not mandatory. We Indians commoditized this love between a girl and her family, pawned our self-esteem & self-respect for the sake of some temporary material gains thereby poisoning our rich culture with unending misogyny.

As rightly said by Lord Krishna in Mahabharat, when people start blindly following things, then the society automatically walks to a Kurukshetra for a bloodbath. Yudhisthira blindly followed the protocol and staked his brothers and wife in that game. Bhisma took his oath so seriously that he forgot to listen to a distressed lady's call. Dronacharya was an epitome of knowledge and character. But his loyalty towards the royal family made him impotent for that crucial moment when he failed to protect his best friend's daughter getting disrobed. All of them blindly followed the outdated customs and traditions till they reached the battlefield to slaughter each other.

So, what's the key to end all this ??? The toughest task in life is to remain mentally young and afresh while growing old. The 88 year old Padma Vibhusan awardee Prof. Dr. Yash Pal is a living example of this. His physical body may be 88 yrs old, but at mental level he still possesses the curiosity of a 8 yr old child to learn, question and innovate. In my point for view, to achieve Vision 2020 of Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, we need Youth Icons like Prof. Dr. Yash Pal who inculcate dynamism & innovation in the energetic youths of India. As they say - "To be Old & Wise, you have to be first Young & Stupid"

Happy Birthday - The Way It Should Be

Birthday is "The" special day in our lives which comes once in every 365 days. After spending 9 months inside the protective shield of our mother's womb, it was this day when we came out to face the real world - A world which is much alien to what we might have expected while we were in there. It was on this particular day that whenever we cried, our parents smiled with joy & pride in their eyes. So, the occasion certainly calls for a celebration each year. Consistently, all of us love to celebrate our Birthday to make the day special in our own way. Some love to spend the day with the near & dear ones while some believe in partying hard to "Live Life King Size".

But, is it justifiable to celebrate one's birthday by causing general nuisance ??? Recently, I was visiting my friend's place when I was caught in a traffic jam. There was free booze and a group of people were dancing on the tunes of perfect lunacy. Amidst this chaos, in the middle of the road, some hooligans of the same group were exploding powerful firecrackers which were loud enough to rip apart the eardrums. It was a local politician celebrating his birthday with his so-called followers who are more of mental slaves and less of the class of sane homo-sapiens. Even the poor traffic policeman was having a hard time in dealing with such uncivilized barbarians. This obnoxious and vulgar display of so-called "Power" or "Authority" by the local politician showed his level of mental bankruptcy. The hooliganism showed the lack of self-esteem and dignity on the part of his followers. In fact, the followers were not actually following their "Leader". They were blindly following the free booze and chilly-chicken even though it meant to demean the very stature of their local commander. A birthday is a day when we should count our blessings rather than earning curses; and our politician was earning tons of the latter. Every harassed motorist and pedestrian was silently cursing this imbecile fellow and his insane followers on his birthday.

As my father says - "A Birthday is a day which reminds us of our unfinished business for which we have arrived onto this beautiful planet." It is a day to introspect and plan for the future. Even though birthday comes once in every 365 days, it still has the same precise 24 hours - not a minute less or more. At the end of the day, what matters is the way one has made use of these memorable 24 hours. In fact the best way to celebrate Birthday is to enjoy each and every moment of it. By enjoying, it means doing anything that gives us self satisfaction & pride. For instance, Sachin Tendulkar loves playing cricket. Nothing could be more memorable for the Little Master than celebrating his 25th B'Day with a century against Australia in Sharjah in 1998. But all of us are not Sachin Tendulkar. So how are we supposed enjoy this day by doing something great ???

The answer is really simple and is beautifully described by the famous motivational writer Shiv Khera in his tagline - "Winners don't do different things; they do things differently". Rather than doing a vulgar display of wealth, power & influence, one can do small things to make these 86400 seconds memorable. For instance, the enjoyment of attending countless phone calls of family & friends makes the day a truly "My Day". Devouring a tasty cuisine prepared by mother, or cooking a new delicacy & inviting friends to have a taste of it, boosts the feeling of being special. Spending time with family or some soulful moments with that 'Someone Special' gives us the feeling of being loved. Helping a blind person cross the road or buying a meal for a beggar, gifts us a sense of pride. Hence, there are countless ways in which we can "Make it Count" :)
So, last but not the least - "There are certain things money can't buy... For everything else, we have the remaining 364 days..." :)

Net Neutrality - The Misery Within

The battle-lines have been drawn and the War is about to begin. The battleground is Net Neutrality and the battle is between Common Man vs The Telecom Operators. Before I write more on the issue and present my views on the subject, let me first introduce what actually is this "Net Neutrality".
Net Neutrality means that the Service provider should not dictate differential prices on the websites I browse. That means, the service provider has no right to say that I can access my facebook profile for free by subscribing to a certain plan and a separate special voucher to do e-shopping in Flipkart. As both the websites (i.e. Facebook and Flipkart) need a working data connection on my phone, a violation of net neutrality principle also implies that I also need to subscribe a data plan as a pre-requisite for these apps. In other words, for a customer like me, it means A data plan + A flipkart special voucher + A facebook special voucher to make the most of my smartphone.
Common sense dictates that this is a preposterous proposition. This is because one thing is definitely common in accessing facebook profile or doing shopping in flipkart or booking IRCTC tickets online i.e. Data in 0 & 1 (bits and bytes). In techno babble it translates to something like this - "Pay Rs 100 to send 0011001100000111 through the network and Rs 200 to send 1100110011111000 through the same network". Even a Class 12 student who has studied basics of computer system can say that this scheme is totally illogical, irrational, absurd and last but not the least exploitative. As a consumer, as long as I pay for the amount of data I consume, the service provider should not be bothered about whether I send 1000 or 0111 through the network. In other words, tariffs should be fixed upon the quantity of data consumed and not on what data I consume.
Now, arises the bigger question - Why are the technologically literate telecom companies are fighting tooth and nail to implement this irrational & exploitative scheme ? To answer this, let me present this same situation from a service provider's perspective. Suppose I want to start a new telecom company of my own. For that I need to apply for millions of licenses, permits, clearances and then bid for spectrum. For each of these transactions to take place, I need to do N number of "under the table" transactions. That means a huge amount of bribe with my ledger starting from the municipality office peon to the minister, everybody on my payroll. Now as a capitalist, my intention is to make profit as it the the very reason which motivated me to start the business. In ideal case, if my investment would have been Rs 1000, then I would have calculated a target profit of Rs 500 and fix my selling price at Rs 1000+500 i.e. Rs 1500. That is simple mathematics and I would have charged my customers reasonably & ethically to run a sustainable business. But if my investment is Rs 10000 with Rs 9000 being spent on bribing everyone, then what should be my selling price ??? If I can buy the services of certain dishonest government people, then why should I bother about the various legislations and legal aspects of the business ??? The recent 2G scam is a perfect example of this as many telecom companies and politicians were involved in a transaction of Rs 1.76 lakh crores which the Law of the Land terms as illegal.
Again you might be pondering why this politician needs such a huge bribe and kickback to perform his/her designated duties ??? For any politician, contesting elections is a huge investment. So, he/she feels that it is his/her birth right to amass the principal amount and compound interest of the investment from the general public indiscriminately by whatever means - ethical or unethical.
So, in this scenario nobody i.e. the common man, the telecom operator or the politician/bureaucrat is guilty and at the same time everyone of them is guilty. They are guilty because of the miserly attitude they have in their minds. By miserly attitude, I mean to say, each one of us have the attitude to evaluate life as a balance sheet or a profit-loss statement. The common man does not want to bear the monetary loss of the service provider; who in turn does not want its share of loss in the politician's transactions. Ultimately, the politician also does not want to make a loss on his 5 year investment to contest elections. If any one of the above mentioned entities removes this vicious profit-loss statement from the issue and analyze the situation fundamentally, rationally and ethically, then the world may become a better place to live in. As Mahatma Gandhi rightly said - "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed."

"Pothigata Bidya" - The Bookish Knowledge

It was June 2014. The General Elections had just ended with a massive victory for Narendra Modi. The 129 years Grand Old Congress Party had been decimated in the electoral process. I was having a discussion with my roommate who had high regards for highly educated people like former PM Dr Manmohan Singh & Home Minister P Chidambaram. He was puzzled that how come such highly educated persons having very high caliber just got decimated in the elections. To explain it, I narrated my roommate a bed-time Panchatantra story which my father used to tell me when I was a small kid. The story goes like this -

Once upon a time there were four scholars from Ujjain. After finishing their education, they were returning home through a dense forest boasting of their knowledge all the way. Suddenly, they found a decomposing carcass of a lion. The first scholar boasted that he has a divine mantra, with which he can re-assemble the skeleton of the lion. To demonstrate his skill, he chanted the mantra and within a split second, the lion skeleton was assembled. The second scholar taunted him and said that this was a child's play compared to his mantra, wherein he can give flesh & blood to the skeleton framework. To demonstrate his skill, the second scholar chanted a mantra and in no time the skeleton was converted into a dead lion with flesh, bones & skin. The third scholar laughed at the others and said that their skills was nothing compared to his mantra, which has the power to give life to any dead organism. Before the third scholar could chant his mantra, the fourth said that he was afraid of whatever they are doing. All the three scholars laughed him off and taunted him to be a coward and dull student. Out of fear, the fourth scholar climbed up a tree. As the third chanted his divine mantra, the dead lion came back to life and pounced upon the three scholars and mauled them to death. 

Moral of the Story: Knowing the purpose of what you know is the Real Knowledge.

Coming back to our discussion I told my roommate that the revered personalities whom he mentioned just now are like the 3 scholars. They have high knowledge in their respective fields but lacked the ability to visualize the consequences of their actions, as the 3 scholars in the story were ignorant about the consequences of their skills. On the contrary, the present PM Mr Narendra Modi was like the fourth scholar. During the election campaign, many have thrown their jibes on his humble beginnings as a tea-seller which seems no match for a Harvard or Oxford or London School of Economics degree. But, what our PM does possess is an extraordinary degree of common sense. He knew the purpose of what he has learnt and that is the main reason for his rise from a tea-seller to the Prime Minister of India.

Most of us believe that knowledge is directly proportional to the number of books one has read. This is true provided one knows how to read. For instance, a book is written by a human being based on his experiences, perceptions and knowledge. Reading a large number of books is good as it helps us to know in vivid detail about each and every aspect of the subject. But the problem lies when we do not use our own brain and stop questioning what's written in the book. Stereotyping a subject starts when we read only the lines of a book and not read between the lines. In short when we use more of our eyes to scan each and every alphabet of the book rather than our brain to interpret each and every fact, the problem starts.

A person with bookish knowledge knows about the Gravitational Force F = (G*m1*m2)/(r*r). That person can beautifully explain about how the moon rotates around the earth due to earth's gravitational force. But such a person's knowledge runs off the rails when you ask him/her that what causes the entire milky way galaxy to rotate. This is because, 10th standard Physics do not give the concept of Supermassive Black Holes. On the other hand, a person who knows how to read between the lines, intrapolate and extrapolate facts can do this very easily. For such a person, if the earth can rotate another heavenly body like moon by sheer force of its gravity, then how much mass is needed for a central object to rotate millions of stars in Milky Way galaxy around it. Just by estimating the mass of the central object to be somewhere around millions of stars, one can easily say that there is a super massive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.

So, is it a folly to read more books to acquire knowledge ??? The answer is a big NO. One should read books, but the knowledge acquired should act like a base for further research. In Mahabharat, all princes including Jayadrath were pupils of Dronacharya. Jayadratha kept on reading the lines. He seldom used his innovation in archery and restricted his skills to day warfare which rendered him defenseless when Arjuna slayed him in the darkness of a solar eclipse. On the other hand, wielding bows & arrows was just a foundation course for Arjuna. He did reading between the lines and practiced archery in all possible permutations & combinations like shooting in darkness, shooting with left hand (Sabyasachi - The Ambidextrous) etc. This made Arjuna the greatest archer of all times. Hence, to sum up, the idea is to read voraciously; but smartly with more use of brain and less of eyes.

Solitude - A Path to Discover Self

It was in my 10+2 college days, when I came across this beautiful story by Russian author Anton Chekhov, titled "The Bet". This story defines the beauty of solitude and the path to discover oneself.

The story goes like this - Once in a party, a lawyer and a banker got into an argument that which one was better among the two - life imprisonment or capital punishment. The lawyer was of the view that life imprisonment is better, as it does not take away life, and there is always something to live for. On the contrary, the banker held completely opposite views. Soon, the argument spiralled out of hand, and they both got into a bet. The bet was 15 years solitary confinement worth two million dollars, with the lawyer going into solitary confinement for the agreed time period. In a fiery passion, the lawyer agreed and went into solitary confinement. At first, he regretted this bet and cried for the morbid life he was now living. Then within next few years, he got transformed into a foodie, and then into a drunkard. Gradually he learnt to play music and started reading books. He started with fiction, biographies, history, politics, philosophy and finally religious texts. In course of his fifteen years imprisonment, the lawyer was reduced to a bag of bones. But the knowledge he gained in these 15 years made him realize the ultimate truth of life. He learnt to despise the worldly pleasures which are ultimately wiped off by the inevitable death. On the other hand, the banker, who was once a millionaire, was getting bankrupt day by day by fulfilling all the whims and fancies of the imprisoned lawyer. Finally, to save himself from further embarrassment of paying the bet amount, the banker decided to kill the lawyer. Upon reaching the lawyer's cell, he discovered a hand-written note by the lawyer addressed to him. In the note, the lawyer mentioned how he had changed over the years, and had lost the desire for any materialistic pursuits, especially the two million dollars amount, which motivated him to take up the bet in the first place. The banker regretfully cried on reading the note. The story ends with the lawyer forfeiting the two million dollars, by escaping from custody, minutes before he was supposed to win the bet.

In our day to day life, sometimes we come across situations where we get emotionally bankrupt like the banker. These situations can be anything like the loss of a loved one or break-up with the "Someone Special" or the betrayal of a friend. In such situations, we need to play the lawyer and seek some solitude. Solitary confinement with oneself involves gradually cutting off all forms of communication with the outside world which are not necessary. In today's age, it could be achieved by breaking off from all forms of social networking. Only the necessary communications take place like communicating official matters with boss or team-mates in office or minimal talks only with a best friend. In an atmosphere of solitude, we can discover our own self and the hidden talents we possess. Some people develop in the art of singing, some learn a new musical instrument, while some others develop a hobby of reading. Our soul gets replenished with the newly discovered passions and we spend more time in introspecting things. As the soul gets purified, negative emotions like anger, frustration, jealousy which made us emotionally bankrupt in the first place, get converted to their positive counterparts like determination, focus, dedication and compassion. We learn to prioritize things and let go of negative emotions, along with some of the people, who drain our energy. The void which was once created, gets filled up with love for oneself. This love for oneself manifests itself in high self-esteem and boosted self-confidence. For instance, a foodie learns the art of cooking and gets the self-satisfaction of eating good food. This positive feeling, connects the food entering the stomach and the mind, and consequently the person develops a good health. We develop on the positive cycle of taking pride in doing things and, start our journey on the path of excellence. Since solitude disconnects us from the outer world, we remain aloof from the meaningless competitions which drain our energy like anything; only for the sake of someone else to derive profit out of our daily futile rat race. In short, we admire the beauty of life in moments of solitude as we tend to remain aloof and spend time with our own selves.

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more”
― George Gordon Byron

Macaulay Education System - The Makings of a Third World Country

Recently, there was a huge controversy regarding the misogynist and sexist comments made by the two lawyers defending the accused in Nirbhaya case. We the people of India were shocked, not only because of the degraded pervert mentality of the rapists and their lawyers but also by the fact that "How could an Educated lawyer say these things ???"
The problem is the way we define "Education". The system of education that we follow today is the Macaulay Education System. It defines education as the number of degrees one has disregarding the skills one possesses. Now, as per this education system, the lawyers who made such derogatory remarks against the women are "Highly Educated and Qualified". But do they possess the right attitude or correct skills ???

Now, who is this Lord Macaulay and how did he contribute to such a mess in India ? Well, he was Secretary to the Board of Control under Lord Grey from 1832 until 1833. After the passing of the Government of India Act 1833, he was appointed as the first Law Member of the Governor-General's Council. He came to India in 1834, and served on the Supreme Council of India between 1834 and 1838. He was a man possessing highest degree of foresight as his plans to make India a Third World country is still getting executed to the perfection.
The aim of Macaulay was to create a class of clerical people who know English. The idea was that these people would perfectly know how to "Obey Orders and not speak up or question them...". This trend of Indians following orders was recently highlighted by Infosys CEO Mr Vishal Sikka. It is not only Mr Sikka, but many other successful entrepreneurs like him who dream of making India a global leader hold similar views. As per this system of education, there are 3 skills which make a man educated - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Skills like Common Sense Application, Holistic  Attitude, Problem Solving Skills, Communication Skills, Survival Tactics in Hostile situations, Ability to do R&D take a backseat. After all a glorified English speaking clerk can do without such skills. Besides if an enslaved clerk happens to possess these skills then he might regain his self-esteem and practically use discretion in obeying his master. Besides, if ever the master is overthrown some day in future, the slave will no longer be dependent on him. This was the foresight of the cunning Lord Macaulay. Result is that even after independence in 1947, we have the elite IIT's & IIM's but practically no R&D. This is the result why I am typing my blog on a "Google powered Blogger running on Microsoft Windows 7 on a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop. The electricity powering my laptop is generated by an Alstom or Hitachi or Cummins turbo-alternator running somewhere thousands of miles away. The huge network of transformers and transmission lines connecting these alternators are again manufactured by Alstom/General Electric and Crompton Greaves respectively". In short, nothing is indigenous and everything is imported from foreign economies.
Now you may be wondering how all of these relates to Nirbhaya case and the lawyers. When skills take a back seat in any education system, the gender stereotyping starts. Cooking, Stitching, Dancing, Singing becomes a typical "Ladkiyon wala" job and Sports, Academics, Being a bread-winner for the family, self defence skills are strictly masculine domain. A dialogue in the movie Chak De India says it all - "Yeh roti belan chalaane waali Bharatiya naariyaan hain... Kahan nicker wicker pehen ke field mein daudengi... ". Now, all of you can clearly relate the statements made by the lawyers and its relation to the Macaulay education system. People possessing high number of degrees, excellent in reading, writing and arithmetic making misogynist, sexist and derogatory remarks ,without applying the common sense that they were born out of the womb of a woman itself.
We complain that the Indian Judiciary runs at a snail pace. Well, this is again a product of the Macaulay system because it does not rely on common sense application. Going by common sense, the Indian Penal Code dates back to 1860. Its aim was to protect the British interests. Anything that was detrimental to British interests attracted heavy or even death penalty. Everything else that did not concern the British Raj was hardly a crime and carried very light or even no penalty. This is the very reason that Waging War Against A Nation charge on Kasab sent him to gallows but Nirbhaya's tormentors, Nithari butchers roam free. Penalty for terrorist activities is death, but for heinous crimes like rape, it is as meager as Rs 5000. This is because, to the British, rape was a social issue and had nothing to do with their infrastructure and exploitative designs in India. Outraging the modesty of a woman or demanding dowry or bride burning was not an act of insubordination by a subjugated slave, so why bother !!
As already mentioned, this bookish education system has made India an import based economy and Indian Rupees gets devalued day by day. We are always under debt from World Bank and IMF. Our defence equipments rely heavily on Russian and other foreign technologies. A nation which is NOT INDEPENDENT in defending itself is as good as subjugated.  Due to the debt ridden condition and import based nature of Indian economy, the foreign funded human rights groups, and bodies like UNO and Amnesty International meddle with our internal law and order problems. They shame us on global platform whenever cases like Nirbhaya happen (Rape Problem in India by German Professor). Ironically when the culprits in such cases are awarded death penalty, the same organizations apply international pressure citing humanitarian grounds to release the condemned prisoners. This is proven by the fact that the juvenile in Nirbhaya case was sent to a correction centre rather than to the gallows even though his crime was extremely barbaric even for an adult to commit. This denial of justice makes people take law into their own hands like the recent Dimapur Lynching Case or the Bhagalpur Blinding Case (Gangaajal movie). Even a charismatic Prime Minister like Mr Narendra Modi is helpless when his fellow 1.25 billion Indians fight amongst themselves out of sheer ignorance and king size ego powered by bookish knowledge. Rather than pointing fingers to "Sarkaar" how many times have we realized that the "Sarkaar" is made up of people amongst us ?? If they lack common sense, then so do we. If they are misogynist, so are we. If they have forcefully implemented this slavery based education system, then how many times have we attempted to do something out-of-the-box ???
In the end, it was Macaulay's foresight and  his slavery based education system which made us a Third World Country. But after 15th August 1947, it was OUR CHOICE to remain that way.
"Every man is responsible for his own actions... And conversely liable for his own inactions..." Choose your destiny...

Divya Drishti - The Divine Vision

It was the evening of 27th Nov 2011, my sister's wedding day. After receiving my friends from the railway station and arranging for their accommodation, I had to go to the parlour to pick-up my sister who was dressed as the bride. When my sister came out, she looked so beautiful that a single drop of tear fell from my eyes. It was a festive mood in the family. The baraat was yet to begin and the general mood was of celebrations. Despite of this festive mood why this unceremonious single drop of tear ??? Her beauty reminded me that this is the beginning of the end. In a few hours from now, she would be married off and go away to a different family altogether. In short, I was feeling the pain of separation hidden deep behind her unparallelled beauty.

During my college days in Burla, I captured this beautiful sunset. Again, I felt the same emotional pain while witnessing this scenic sunset. The pain that a beautiful day in my life has come to an end; and with it, I am one day closer to the ultimate and inevitable oblivion - Death.

Recently, few months back, I had the chance to visit a resort as a part of my official team outing. There I captured this cute little kitten. It was mewing the entire winter evening. So my team mates offered it some food. Still then, it did not even care to sniff the food and continued to cry. Seeing this behaviour, I realized that this innocent kitten was missing its mother. This sorrowful feeling of a child getting separated from its mother touched me emotionally and it felt as if an arrow has pierced straight through my heart.

After much introspection, I realized that all the three events have one thing in common; that Pain & Beauty are two sides of the same coin. The ability to see one behind the other is the Divine Vision - Divya Drishti.

The beautiful and serene sunset in the picture is actually an exploding fireball millions of miles away. So explosive that everything within a thousand miles radius vaporizes. This fiery inferno description of the beautiful red sunset can send shivers through anyone's spine. The negative emotions like pain, fear and a sense of explosive violent atmosphere are always hidden behind the beauty of a serene sunset.

Similarly, the tears of separation flowing down the eyes of a bride during "Vidaai" add to her flawless beauty. But, the moment is an emotionally painful one and it becomes very difficult to remain dispassionate and witness the beauty associated with the pain.

In Mahabharat, only two persons had this Divya Drishti. One was Sanjay and the other was Arjuna.

To the normal human eye, the Kurukshetra War was the most bloodiest war. Millions of human beings literally slaughtered each other like animals. Human relations reached their nadir and four generations of the Kuru clan bayed for each others blood. The victor was not judged on the area captured, rather on the body count he piled up at the end of the day. Possessed with Divya Drishti, both Arjuna & Sanjay were witnessing something very different - The beauty of destructive creation. Everything was getting annihilated for the sake of a fresh start. But, there were certain conditions attached to this Divya Drishti. The moment one sees only one side of the coin, this divine ability is lost. Arjuna felt the pain of this blood-thirsty war when his only son Abhimanyu was brutally killed. Consequently, he lost the ability to see the beauty of destructive creation. Next day he walked into the battlefield with revenge in his mind, whose sole purpose was to destroy for the sake of destroying his enemies, and not to create a society for the good people. Sanjay also lost this divine vision when he started to feel the pain of Duryodhan dying in the battlefield. The beauty of dharma restored was no longer visible to Sanjay when he felt the pain of the bereaved blind king Dhritarashtra.

We tend believe that this divine vision is no longer present with ordinary mortals like us, and it is embedded forever, deep within the mythological texts like Mahabharat. But the strange fact is that anyone who can appreciate beauty has the inherent ability to feel the pain associated with it. The converse is also true i.e. anybody who is feeling some kind of emotional pain has the ability to enjoy the beauty of the moment. Then why don't we use our Divya Drishti and remain happy in moments of pain ??

The answer lies in the fact that, if we want to witness beauty in painful moments, then we must also be prepared to accept the pain hidden behind the beauty. The latter is easier said than done. Instead, we often choose to ignore the pain hidden behind the beauty rather than accepting it. As they say - "Sometimes knowledge becomes a poison and ignorance becomes bliss". Divya Drishti is all about digesting the poison (Vish) and become one with the almighty Shiv.

A Memorable Train Journey to Kolkata

Prologue: It started 24th August 2012. After passing out of college, it was really exciting to have a room-mate reunion. The venue was Kolkata and our host was Kuladeep. I boarded the train from Rourkela and our third roomie Jyotiranjan was to board from Kharagpur. In short, for the initial 298 Km of the journey, my Nikon L22 camera was supposed to keep me away from boredom. The final 114 Km from Kharagpur was easy and I was hardly bothered about it.

Train No: 12872, Ispat Express.
Coach No. D4
Seat No. 49 (Window Seat)

11:40 - The train hauled by a bulky WDM-3D diesel locomotive rushed into platform no. 4 as the eager crowd literally seemed to pounce upon the helpless train to reserve seats by keeping their handkerchiefs on the berths. I waited till the crowd settled and then boarded the train. With a little delay in boarding, I had anticipated that a typical "Rowdy Rathore" would be occupying my reserved seat with an "Angry Bird" look on face; and I need to show my ticket as a proof to sit on the allocated berth. But, things were much humane & civilized when I entered the compartment. I put my bag on the seat and came out to see the tradition of loco change - The bulky Bondamunda WDM-3D diesel loco handing over the baton to a majestic red Santragachhi WAP-4 electric loco.

11:50 - All the formalities related to the diesel-electric loco conversion was over. The train was tightly coupled to the new locomotive with pressure valves thoroughly checked. All logs were meticulously maintained & signed by the loco pilot & the assistant loco pilot and finally the rear pantograph was raised to power the six powerful traction motors. Within a couple of minutes the humming sound of the motors was overpowered by a more high pitched and loud horn. It was less of a usual horn and more of a typical war cry - "Get out of my way !!! I m marching ahead !!!". With this I boarded my compartment. "Its time to go."

 It took some 10 to 15 minutes for the train to gather full momentum. The rapid changing of tracks seemed like watching an animation movie with the tracks giving way to the sheer brute force of the train.

12:38 - Sitting there in the window seat, I was scanning the beautiful monsoon imagery outside when I heard another similar shrill horn blaring. The variation of the sound pitch reminded me of the 12th standard physics - Doppler Effect. This has to be another train from opposite direction. Within no time, I retrieved my camera to capture the twin of my own train - 12871 Up Ispat Express rushing towards its destination.

Soon, the entire scenery started to fade into darkness and the train reduced its throttle with constant honking. The pitch of the horn changed from the usual aggressive to a now cautious low pitched sound indicating danger ahead. The train was about to enter one of the oldest railway tunnels in India - Saranda tunnel between Mahadevsal & Posoita stations in Jharkhand. Soon all of the outside lush green scenery disappeared into that impenetrable blackness of the tunnel.

A few minutes later, the impregnable dark reality gave way to some light. The train again started to pick up its original speed. But soon the outside scenery again started to get dark. This time, heavy clouds welcomed us with their share of rain. The humid air which got me sweating profusely now changed into a cool breeze. It was moments before a heavy downpour cooled the entire environement and gave some relief from the sultry atmosphere.

14:34 - The train slowly crawled into the platforms of Tatanagar Jn. Memories of my previous visits flashed back before my eyes. For a moment I felt nostalgic about the days when I used to visit my sister... The typical "Bhai-Behen" ka craze for a special cup of cold coffee at Cafe Coffee Day... Or the lazy Sunday mornings tuned with perfectly imperfect cuisines cooked on experimental basis when my sister was learning the preparations of diverse delicacies... I played the experimental "Guinea Pig" for all those "Dexter's Experiments" !!! ;) :D :P
My chain of thoughts got interrupted with a small jolt. After 15 minutes of halt, the train started pulling out of Steel City Jamshedpur to proceed on its journey.

16:07- For the next one and a half hour, the train kept on moving at a blistering speed to enter the state of West Bengal. As the train started to enter Jhargram, memories of the horrific Jnaneshwari derailment became afresh. On the night of 28th May 2010 around 1:40am, Howrah-Mumbai LTT Jnaneshwari Express derailed somewhere around 30Km from Jhargram when another goods train coming from opposite direction rammed into the derailed train. As per official reports 140 people died in cold blood in the dead of night. A few minutes later, the train crossed Ground Zero of the crash where the mangled bogies of the super-deluxe train still lie as a memorial to all those unfortunate people who perished.

It was another 20 minutes when it seemed the train playing snakes & ladders with the curving tracks. The initial 298 Km of the journey was coming to an end as the previously known Longest Railway Platform of the World - Kharagpur was up ahead. I called up Jyotiranjan to know about his position. As the train prepared to accommodate itself in the 1072 metre long platform, Jyoti was just outside the IIT campus. Knowing that he cannot make it in time, I unboarded at Kharagpur to complete the remaining 114 Km in a Howrah-Kgp local.

10 mins after Ispat Express departed from Kgp, my roomie Jyotiranjan arrived. He bought himself a local train ticket to Howrah and our local train was supposed to depart from platform 2A at 17:10.

17:08 - Only 2 minutes left for the local to depart and we are yet to discover Platform 2A !!! :D It took us 5 more minutes of panic mode running on the endless platform to reach the designated part of the platform. By the time we reached, it was empty. The local had already departed. So again back to Railway Enquiry counter.

Me: "Sir... Howrah k liye next local kab hai ???"
Enquiry Official: "Abhi next 6 baje aapko milega... Platform 2A pe."
Me: "Usse pehle koi doosra nai hai ??"
Enquiry Official: "Nai."

Once getting the confirmation, both of us were on a "Jet-Set-Go" mode to literally pounce upon any local that stops on platform 2A. At 17:50, a local train hauled into the platform and within no time, we were occupying two decent window seats. The inside of a local train resembled more like a daily haat. Chanawala, Chaiwala, Pheriwala, Bartanwala and likes were busy achieving their daily sales target. My last meal was at 10:30 in the morning and I was able to feel my stomach carving for some food... Besides, the junk food was stimulating my taste buds. So we both bought ourselves some jhaal-chana n started talking about the good old college memories. It took us another 2 hours, and by 20:00, we were standing outside Howrah Railway Station searching for a bus to Salt Lake City. Finally after 8 long hours the 412 Km awesome train journey came to an end as the trusses of Howrah Bridge welcomed us to the "City of Joy" :)