Home Minister Shivraj Patil

When Delhi was burning, the Home Minister was busy changing dresses. Sounds unbelievable – but in a span of 4-5 hours (just after the blasts ) he changed three dresses. The fashion show of the Home Minister is a clear indication of his priorities and lack of concern. Being the Home Minister, he should have been doing many more important things at that critical time than just changing dresses.

If this was not enough, his able deputy decided to rush to his home constituency Kanpur on the next day of the blasts to inaugurate a shop. He was shown on the TV cutting ribbons and enjoying snacks on this occasion.

Lal Bahadur Shastri

While it can be argued that there is nothing wrong with ministers changing dresses and inaugurating shops, this needs to be viewed in the context of the terrible tragedy for which these two ministers are directly responsible.

Gone are the days when Lal Bahadur Shastri tendered his resignation after a train accident owning moral responsibility as the then Railway Minister. The least that is expected of today’s ministers is to at least show some respect and concern for the public sentiments.

With elections round the corner, this kind of shameless indifference by the Patil and his deputy will surely have a toll on Congress’s chances.

The picture in the Blog Header shows the Sindhu (Indus) River. This picture was clicked by me during my last visit to Leh. I think this photograph gels very well with the blog because:

• The blog mainly covers issues related to India and the picture of Indus River in the Blog Header represents this theme.
• The picture was clicked by me personally and therefore there is no concern about the ownership of the image.
• It shows a time which is neither day nor night. This also conveys a subtle message about the blog. I leave the further details of this interpretation to the readers.
• The picture shows the three major elements of nature – Sky, land and water with approximately equal representation.

5 Blasts rocked the capital on 13th Sept. (Saturday)

Another Indian city was rocked by blasts yesterday. It is a terrible tragedy but unfortunately the regularity of these blasts has started to make us immune to the scale of the tragedy. It is indeed a sad story of our inability to deal with the problem firmly.

The tone of statements issued by the Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit further strengthens the impression that we are a soft state.

The results achieved by Gujarat Police after the Ahmedabad blasts are indeed commendable. SIMI’s real face has been exposed and those politicians who were indulging in vote bank politics and supporting SIMI should hang their heads in shame. Even after the arrests made by the Gujarat Police, Lalu Prasad Yadav blamed them for unnecessarily targeting the minorities. Mulayam’s and Paswasn’s sympathy and support for SIMI is already well known.

One really wonders, whether the police are given a free hand in dealing with cases like this? Ideally, the results achieved by the Gujarat Police should have received nation wide acclaims but the only statements we saw were accusations of targeting the minorities.

The email sent by SIMI in the name of Indian Mujahidin minutes before the Delhi blasts is an example of our soft paddling of the issue. The senders of the email knew perfectly well that the email would be traced but they seem to be confident that the police won’t be able to trace the emails to them. They have also announced through the email that Mumbai would be the next target. The ability of the terrorists to strike at will is indeed frightening and the security agencies need to get their act together very quickly.

Rata Tata with Nano

Talks between Mamta Banerjee and the West Bengal government have failed. Mamata is adamant on her demand for returning 350 acres land to the farmers while the government was offering only 70 acres.

Mamata Banerjee

The communist government in West Bengal is getting a taste of its own policy of opposing the developmental activities in other states where it is in the opposition. Hopefully this experience will make them realise their mistake.

Tatas have already made it clear that they need the entire land and they will not compromise on this requirement. Politicians have to understand that business can not be run by their whims and fancies.

In a way, it is good that this has happened to a Tata project because Tatas are one of the very few business houses in India who enjoy a clean image. Otherwise it would have been very easy for the politicians and NGOs to put the entire blame on the project sponsor. Meanwhile, Infosys has also announced that they may also pull out from West Bengal. This is another blow to the government and specially the WB Chief Minister who is trying very hard to reform the negative culture in the Communist camp.

Ironically the communist party is spearheading the agitation against the Pasco Steel Project in Orissa where the Rs. 52,000 Crore project has failed to take off for the last three years. Recently, Laxmi Mittal also expressed his unhappiness over the lack of support for his projects in Orissa and Jharkhand. Here also, land acquisition is one of the main problems being faced by Mittal’s projects.

A new Land Acquisition Bill was introduced in the Parliament early this year but so far it has failed to see the light of the day. The Central Government was hoping to get it passed in the Monsoon Session but the Government had to put everything at the back burner due to withdrawal of support by the left parties on the Nuclear Deal issue. Incidentally, the current Land Acquisition Act dates back to 1894 and obviously needs a major overhaul very badly. There is very little hope of getting the bill passed because all political parties seem to have got into the election groove now.

Similarly, the much touted New Mineral Policy Bill also could not be passed during the monsoon session and will have a similar fate. In spite of all the big talks of promoting development, the governments both at centre and states have done very little to remove the hurdles in the path of development.

LHC - Under construction

The LHC or the Big Bang experiment in Geneva has invoked a whole spectrum of reactions in India.

The most painful news in this context was the suicide committed by a young girl who got extremely stressed by the media hoax that 10th September would be the end of the world. While, it is possible to question the circumstances and blame the poor girl for this immature act, I would put the blame fully on the false and baseless propaganda created by the media to sensationalise the issue. Star News particularly crossed all limits and kept beaming the hoax in the most shameless manner. They would say that they also denied this rumour and even went to the extent of guaranteeing their viewers that this rumour was baseless. The question is that when a prominent TV Channel broadcasts such a rumour in the most sensational way, the negative part of the news affects the vulnerable masses very easily and they don’t care about any denials.

While this poor girl took the extreme step of choosing to end her life, there were millions of others who took the warning equally seriously and took to prayers and fasting to save the world from being annihilated by the tiny black holes supposed to be produced by the LHC experiment. It is a sad reflection of the gullibility and vulnerability of the Indian masses. Unfortunately, religion plays a major part in this attitude.

The brighter side is the significant contribution being made by Indian scientists including those of Indian origin. Out of the total approximately 9000 scientists involved in this experiment, about 2000 fall in this category. In addition to this, some of the critical components of the LHC were manufactured in India.

Dr. Satyendra Nath Bose (1925)

One of the most important goals of the LHC experiment is to prove (or disprove) the existence of Higgs bosons which are also called the God particles. What many of us are not aware of is that noted Indian scientist Dr. Satyndra Nath Bose had made a very significant contribution in developing the theory of “Higgs bosons” and the “boson” part of the name is derived from “Bose”.

In 1924, Bose sent a paper to Einstein describing a statistical model that eventually led to the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomenon. The paper laid the basis for describing one of the two categories of the elementary particles that make up an atom – one was boson, and the other came to be known as fermion, after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

According to Bose’s grandson Falguni Sarkar, six other physicists have won the Nobel for work in the area of Bose statistics. However, 34 years after his death, the Nobel continues to elude Satyendra Nath Bose himself.

Sharon Ann Holgate, a British science writer and broadcaster who made an acclaimed radio documentary on Bose for the BBC some years ago, said she had no doubt the Indian deserved a Nobel. “I certainly do think he deserved the Nobel. When I was researching my documentary I was outraged that this man was so brilliant, yet so overlooked, perhaps because of institutionalised racism. No one gave a damn because he was an Indian,” she told IANS.

This attitude is not very surprising considering that in spite of being nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Prize; Mahatma Gandhi never got the prize. Recently, the Nobel Prize committee has publicly admitted its mistake in not awarding this prize to Mahatma Gandhi. Those interested may visit the official website of Nobel (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/) for details.

Incidentally, Dr. Perter Higgs is a very strong contender for the Noble particularly if the the LHC experiment validates the exisitance of the “Higgs bosons”.

Big B is back in India. He is a worried man today. I just finished reading his blog on Raj – Jaya controversy. He says he didn’t sleep that night. He has also indirectly admitted that Jaya had made a mistake by instigating Raj Thackeray. Obviously he can’t directly blame her in public. At the same time, he appears to be visibly shaken by the turn of events. His nervousness has forced him to do what he hates doing. To prove his contribution to the state and its natives, he has published a long list of his benevolence towards the so called Marathi Manoos. He has also apologized on behalf of Jaya with lots of ifs and buts. I would like to quote his exact words from his blog:

“The casual off the cuff remarks made by her at the music launch function were without malice or deliberate intent, but if it has caused hurt to the sentiments of Maharashtra, Maharashtrians and indeed the city and citizens of Mumbai, then she must seek regret and offer apology. Everything that we possess today is what came to us from this great state and city. We never have and never can look at Maharashtra with disrespect. If inadvertently this is what has been construed, then we apologize and are sorry and seek forgiveness for any sentiments that have been hurt.”

I can fully understand Big B’s state of mind. As I mentioned in my previous post – what Jaya did was an unnecessary provocation which has now sabotaged the most ambitious releases of not only his film but also Abhishek’s most talked about film Drona. Big B is on a big fire-fighting mission today. The controversy has already taken its toll on the premier of Big B’s own release in Mumbai.

As much as Raj Thackeray needs to be condemned for his vandalism, Jaya can not absolve herself from triggering this unnecessary controversy. I am not sure if the apologies tendered by Jaya and Big B would be able to save the two important film releases of Bachchans. I am saying this because Raj Thackeray has tasted blood now and he may like to go for the kill. This time even Bala Sahab is not ready to come to Bachchans’ rescue. The only consolation he has provided is to drag SRK into this controversy. It is difficult to say how much that will help the cause of Bachchans’. Not much, I guess.

Strangely, no one is blaming Priyanka Chopra whose wicked chuckle played a key role in making Jaya’s remark sound even more contemptuous. Probably it serves no useful purpose to target her.

Why do we dream? This question has fascinated philosophers, scientists and psychologists for thousands of years. Many theories have been propounded but none has been fully established.

The most notable theory about the purpose of dreams was given by Sigmund Freud in his famous book “Interpretation of Dreams“. I have had this book with me for many years and although I could never read it fully but I have gone through it in bits and pieces many times. In short Freud’s theory says that dreams are a disguised fulfilment of repressed wishes. According to Freud there are two component of every dream – Manifest and Latent. Manifest content is what we actually see in the dream and the latent component is the hidden psychological meaning of the dream.

Many other theories have been suggested to account for the occurrence and meaning of dreams. The following are just of few of the proposed ideas:

• Dreams are the result of our brain trying to interpret external stimuli during sleep. For example, the sound of the radio may be incorporated into the content of a dream.
• A computer metaphor is used to account for dreams. According to this theory, dreams serve to ‘clean up’ clutter from the mind, much like clean-up operations in a computer, refreshing the mind to prepare for the next day.
• Dreams function as a form of psychotherapy. In this theory, the dreamer is able to make connections between different thoughts and emotions in a safe environment.
• Circuits in the brain become activated during REM sleep, which causes areas of the limbic system involved in emotions, sensations, and memories become active. The brain synthesizes and interprets this internal activity and attempts to find meaning in these signals, which results in dreaming. This model suggests that dreams are a subjective interpretation of signal generated by the brain during sleep.
• A contemporary model of dreaming combines some elements of various theories. According to this theory, activation patterns are shifting and connections are being made and unmade constantly in our brains, forming the physical basis for our minds. There is a whole continuum in the making of connections that we subsequently experience as mental functioning. At one end of the continuum is focused waking activity, such as when we are doing an arithmetic problem or chasing down a fly ball in the outfield. Here our mental functioning is focused, linear and well-bounded. When we move from focused waking to looser waking thought–reverie, daydreaming and finally dreaming–mental activity becomes less focused, looser, more global and more imagistic. Dreaming is the far end of this continuum: the state in which we make connections most loosely.

The subject is indeed very interesting and it is possible to have unlimited theories on the same until medical science develops a proper method of clinically analysing the dreams.

My own take on this subject is that dreams are an extension of our thinking process. If we notice carefully our brain is always active and thinking about something. In normal course, the brain keeps randomly shuffling between a variety of topics and it is not an easy task to control the way our brain thinks. When we are awake we do make conscious effort to keep our brain from wandering from time to time. I guess, the brain keeps thinking in the same way when we are asleep. The only difference is that since we are not in a conscious state, we are not making any attempt to prevent the brain from wandering and therefore it is free to think. In addition to that since the sensory organs are also inactive during this stage, the brain is simulating images, sounds, sense of touch, taste and smell to suit the random sequence of thoughts that it is going through.

If we follow this approach, it becomes easier to interpret and explain many things related to dreaming. The best approach is to allow our brain (mind) to wander freely but at the same time make a note of the thinking process. If we analyse our thinking process, it would give us many clues about our dreams.

The only problem is that this would be totally against our basic training of keeping our thought process in check. Coming to think of it – this process may be called Ant-Meditation because in meditation we are required to control our thought process and channelize it in a particular direction.

I realise that this post has already become very long so I would save this discussion for some other time. Hope this would be a good food for thought till them.

Here is the original Hindi version of “A Broken Toy” -

टूटा खिलौना

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें, छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

कोई नया,कोई पुराना,
कोई अपना,कोइ बेगाना,
इक खिलौना|

हर डगर में,हर सफर में,
इन खिलौनों के नगर में,
ढूँढता फिरता मैं पगला,
एक अपना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें, छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

दो कदम तक साथ चलकर,
छोड़ देते साथ मेरा,
तोड़ देते तुम कुचलकर,
एक सपना|

हर हँसी,बेगानी खुशियाँ,
पागलों के कहकहों में,
कौन सुनता किसकी बातें,
कौन सुनता किसका रोना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें, छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

क्या गिनूं अब खोये कितने गीत मैंने,
और कितने छोड़ आया,
इन खिलौनों के नगर में,
चूर सपने!

चाबियों के ज़ोर पर,
चलते खिलौनों की नज़र में,
कुछ नहीं हैं मेरी खुशियाँ,
कुछ नहीं है मेरा रोना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें,छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

क्या गए तुम छोड़ पीछे?
एक केवल याद अपनी,
पर मगर तुम ले गए हो,
एक शायद मेरी नींदें,
एक शायद मेरा हँसना |

खूब ये भी है मशवरा;
भूल जाओ बात बीती,
याद रक्खो कुछ अगर तो,
इन खिलौनों के नगर में,
चाबियों की चाकरी और,
चाबियों का रोज़ भरना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें,छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

आज तक हूँ मैं अकेला,
अजनबी से इस शहर में,
ढूँढता हूँ फ़िर किसी को,
पूछता हूँ हर किसी से,
मैं न जाने कितनी बातें|

पर कोई भी कुछ न कहता|
और बोलो क्या कहेगा?
इस शहर में हर कोई है,
चाबियों के डर से चलता और रुकता,
इक खिलौना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें,छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

वो पुराने गीत अबतक,
पूछते हैं रोज़ मुझसे|
तोड़ खामोशी ये अपनी!
कब तलक पलटोगे पन्ने?
और बोलो क्या करोगे,
रोज़ पढ़कर तुम हमारा?

तुम बताओ,क्या कहूँ मैं?
ये कि अबतक है अधूरा गीत मेरा,
या कि अबतक है अधूरा,
एक पन्ना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें,छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

आज आकर ये खड़े हैं पास देखो!
गिन न पाउँगा समझ लो,
अनगिनत हैं ये खिलौने|

इनकी आँखें क्यों भरी हैं आंसुओं से?
सब भला खामोश क्यों हैं?
ऐ खिलौनों! क्यों हो गुमसुम?
क्यों नहीं चलते,उछालते,चीखते अब?
कब तलक यूँ चुप रहोगे,
यूँ कि जैसे मर गया हो,
कोई अपना|

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें,छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

ठीक है,तो चुप रहो!
कुछ न कहो मेरी बला से,
लो चला मैं!

और ये क्या?
क्यों न उठते हाथ मेरे?
भाग जाना चाहता हूँ,
और ये क्या?
क्यों न चलते पाँव मेरे?
चीख आती है गले तक,
और ये क्या?
क्यों न खुलते होंठ मेरे?

और देखो क्या ये कहते?
अब कोई भी न भरेगा मेरी चाबी,
चल न पाउँगा कभी मैं,
हो गया हूँ आज से टूटा खिलौना!

आज मिल जाए कोई तो,खोल दूँ मैं सब वो गिरहें,छोड़ दूँ मैं सब वो रोना|

The poem titled “Identity” was originally written in Hindi. Although I had tried my best to do full justice to the English translation, still I believe that it is almost impossible to convey the same meaning in a translation. I am therefore posting the original version here for the benefit of those who can read Hindi.

अस्तित्व-बोध

तुम्हारा विराट अस्तित्व!
वलयों के दायरों में होते हुए भी,
बिन्दु रेखाओं की सीमाओं से परे!
और मैं?
आकाश-गंगा की दुग्ध-धारा में हिचकोले खाता,
एक अदना सा ऊल्का-पिंड!

तुम, स्थितप्रज्ञ!
वातायनों से आते झोंकों से बुनते,
अपनी ऊर्जस्वितता के ताने-बाने!
जलधि की चंचल लहरों पर तिराते,
अपने ऐतिहासिक अंतर्द्वन्द्व की किश्तियाँ!
जो बहती चली जातीं हैं,
काल क्षितिज की सीमाओं के परे!
रह जाता है-
बस तुम्हारा,
बस तुम्हारे विराट अस्तित्व का, आतंक,
चक्षुओं के राज्य में!

इधर,
मेरी जिजीविषा,
सुरधनु के एक सिरे से,
बहती हुई,
प्रत्यंचा के पथ से,
पहुँच जाती है,
संघर्ष के शर-बिन्दु तक,
मधु-संधान में!

उधर,
मेरे गर्व-रथ के तुरंग,
खींचते ले जाते हैं, कलेवर,
मेरे अस्तित्व-बोध का!
उनकी हर पदचाप के साथ,
बृहत्तर होता जाता है,
तुम्हारा काल-चिंतन!

इधर,
दिग्दाहों से उठते धूम के साथ,
मेरे प्रज्वलित कलेवर से निकलती,
अस्थि-ध्वनि,
गूंजती जाती है,
समष्टि के कर्ण-पट पर!

उधर,
तुम्हारी किं-कर्तव्य-विमूढ़ता के मलयज में,
तिरते हुए बिखर जाते हैं,
चुपचाप,
क्षार-बिन्दु,
मेरे अस्तित्व-बोध के!

In almost all popular systems of music, there are 12 notes out of which 7 are called pure notes and remaining 5 are flat or sharp notes. In Indian Music system, the pure notes are called “shuddha swara” and flat/ sharp notes are called “komal” and “teevra” swara”. The seven “shuddha swara” are – “Sa”, Re”, “Ga”, “Ma”, “Pa”, “Dha” and “Nee”. The remaining five “swara” are – “Komal Re”, “Komal Ga”, “Teevra Ma”, “Komal Dha” and “Komal Nee”. The twelve notes together form one “Octave” or “Saptak”. There are normally three “Saptaks” – “Mandra”(lower), “Madhya”(middle) and “Taar” (High). Each “Saptak” theoretically has all the 12 notes but in most of the compositions apart from the entire “Madhya Saptak” only 3-4 notes of the “Mandra Saptak” and the “Tar Saptak” are used. This is mainly because of the limitation of the human voice which can not cover more than this span. Instruments of course can span over a much wider range but normally instrumentalists compose tunes in the same range as it sounds much better that way.

Pythagoras teaching music in "The School of Athens"

All the twelve notes of an Octave sound different because they have different frequencies. There are three versions of each note – one in each Octave. For example we have one “Mandra Saptak Sa”, one “Madhya Saptak Sa” and one “Tar Saptak Sa”. If we play these three notes they sound similar yet different. Why? Obviously the three “Sa” have different frequencies so why should they sound similar? It is because all the three frequencies are resonating frequencies. Which means that if the frequency of Mandra Saptak Sa is “f” then the frequencies of “Madhya Saptak” and “Tar Saptak” Sa are “2f” and “4f” respectively.

One “Saptak” comprises of 12 notes having frequencies between “f” and “2f”. The method of assigning the frequencies to the 12 notes is called “Tuning Method”. Various tuning methods have evolved over thousands of years both in Indian as well as in the Western Music System. Interestingly, most of these methods have very interesting mathematical backgrounds and the famous mathematician Pythagoras was the first to propound a mathematical tuning method. I wouldn’t like to load this blog with the technical details but those who are interested can search the web to find out more about this subject.