Pen rests and keys speak...

My new blog

2006-05-16T11:11:00.000+02:00

I have started a new blog a few days back. This, obviously will reduce the frequency of posts on this older blog. The new blog, which I have named पिटारा भानुमती का (piTaara bhanumati ka) is in Hindi, and is published in Devanagari with the help of unicode editor called baraha. Have a look if it interests you.

Eat my bullet and seekh angrezi

2006-05-02T17:29:00.000+02:00

Not very long before, I had written a post titled Lost in Translation and Shripad had given a very nice comment.

And today I saw here, that Sholay will be taught in CBSE schools. They say, "the movie will be part of a course teaching Std 5 students (of the CBSE board) to communicate well in English."!

The aim of this post is not to conclude anything, but laugh, if you can.

Radio days are back

2006-04-19T16:10:00.000+02:00

"Ye aakashwani hai, ab aap....". Some twenty years back, this was the fastest source in my home to remain connected with the rest of the world. I explicitly remember, we had a "transistor radio set" while many of my friends had got TVs and audio cassette players. Wow! That was something, you could listen your favourite song anytime you want!

Today, I have a decent collection of my favourite music, something better than audio cassettes and something better then those old cassette players. But to decide which song shall I play, I take a lot of time (after all Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi....). Rather, I prefer listening radio. Alas, there is no radio set which can catch my favourite signals across the miles!

Finally, I got a solution and it was very satisfying to know that there are online radio stations which match my taste. Thank God! But then when I am mostly listening to these online radios, why did I spend so much time in grabbing my favourite music? Well, Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi! Everything is back to the initial point, except that I do not need to tune the radio, but click something non-existent (computer screen) with some other non-existing thing (mouse pointer).

Lost in translation

2006-04-04T16:13:00.000+02:00

"Mon coeur oscille doucement, pour quoi je ne sais pas"

What is this? Well, it's a famous Hindi song! Now a days, when I watch movies, I prefer to keep subtitles in French - just a way to learn French while watching movies. Alas! subtitles come with songs too. I gave my DVD of Black to one of my friends here who is French. While returning the DVD back, she told that movie was very good but subtitles were pathetic, and somehow she could follow. Well, I have no right to comment on the quality of French subtitles, afterall I don't know the language. I thought, may be people who translate the movie are not native speakers of the language they are translating into, and thus these mistakes are understandable.

Then I encountered an interesting incident and realised that perhaps these are not humans who write subtitles. Why did I think so? Well, here is a sample:

[Hindi] Kaise ho? = [English] How're you? = [French!] How're vous? (in French, vous = you = aap).

According to the translator, "How're" remains unchanged! OK! Why not check this page! Because the sample above makes me think that this is the "person" who writes subtitles! At least the typist could have written "How are you?" (in full) before clicking the translation button!

Well, this was not the only example, after that I could locate lots of funny mistakes and immediately put off subtitles!

By the way, any idea which song is "Mon coeur oscille doucement, pour quoi je ne sais pas"?

Glossary (so that people are not lost in translation!) : Mon = my; coeur = heart; oscille = oscillate; doucement = slowly, gently; pour quoi = why; je ne sais pas = I don't know

RDB and JP

2006-04-03T18:07:00.000+02:00

After a saint-like patience for two months, I finally saw Rang De Basanti yesterday. In deed a thought provoking movie. I liked it. Plot, idea and presentation - everything is very original. But then there is one not very pleasant way to interpret the movie - immorality and corruption are so deep rooted in the system, lawmakers and leaders of the country that any effort to change it will be suppressed. People will back you and support your efforts only till they are charged with emotions. Then, everything is back to square one. Corrupts do not change, system remains sick and the life goes on. The only difference is that those who tried to fight against all odds, and those who got temporary support from "common man", (only) after their sacrifice are no more!

I am not advocating that one should remain silent, but there are better ways to channelize your energy than to take extreme steps. This reminds me of Loknayak Jaiprakash Narain. His sampoorna kranti, and very organised efforts to aware public did change the government. Unfortunately, what followed during next two years was not very pleasant, and that's another point to discuss. What I want to emphasize is that systems can be changed, possibly not by one single person, neither by crowds, but a well motivated and organised group with well- defined objects.

Against Daylight Saving!

2006-03-29T13:34:00.000+02:00

How can you save the daylight? Wise people say, advance your clocks by one hour and the daylight will be saved!

Daylight-saving time (DST) has started here from this Sunday, and still I am not able to convince myself if it is really useful. Why is it observed at all? I asked many and two of the responses were:

This is for the farmers. They need more sunlight! If clocks are shifted by an hour, farmers will get up early and will do more work in their farms! But bhaiya, why should farmers look at the clock at all to decide if they should work or not?

This is to save energy. How? Benjamin Franklin told us. Hmmm... good, could you please explain, how it works? Well, I heard that people sleep one hour early and do not consume much electricity in the night. Wow! what an ingenious idea to force an early sleep on them by making them fool and by playing with their biological clocks. All that too "save" (I don't know if it really does) energy.

So, many countries save energy by changing their clocks. But I am sure, there are much better ways to save energy. Belgium boasts of its highly illuminated highways in the nights, and as is claimed, The Great Wall of China and Belgian highways are the only two man-made structures visible from moon! (see here). Is it really worth doing that? I am sure, they can save the energy by spending less for this purpose and reducing lights to what is practically required (so as not to be visible from moon!)

Observing DST, not only violets a correspondence between the "God made real" time and the clock time, but also gives rise to some funny incidents. Two of them are mention here in Wikipedia. It says:

"Supposing some unfortunate lady was confined with twins and the first child was born 10 minutes before 3 o'clock British Summer Time. ... the time of birth of the two children would be reversed. ... Such an alteration might conceivably affect the property and titles in that House."

This is rare, but then there are not so rare and inevitable situations too. When the clocks are changed, what is its effect on flight and train schedules? Here is a funny but true stuff I found on this site. They mention:

"To keep to their published timetables, trains cannot leave a station before the scheduled time. So, when the clocks fall back one hour in October, all Amtrak trains in the U.S. that are running on time stop at 2:00 a.m. and wait one hour before resuming. Overnight passengers are often surprised to find their train at a dead stop and their travel time an hour longer than expected. At the spring Daylight Saving Time change, trains instantaneously become an hour behind schedule at 2:00 a.m., but they just keep going and do their best to make up the time."

I wonder how do they stop flights in the middle of the sky for one hour? I strongly criticize the idea of "Daylight Saving". Standard scales should not be tampered. I am sure I can not teach people running fast by adding a few more centimeters in the meter scale.

Looking at the podium

2006-03-21T13:52:00.001+01:00

There are moments in life when you feel you have got much more than what you had prayed for. More frequently you come across these moments more egoless are you, more humble are you when others pat on your back for your accomplishment.

These days, I often see this when I watch Commonwealth Games' athletes on the podium who get Gold just by a very narrow margin. A mixture of humbleness and pride can be seen simultaneously on their face.

A poem of Agyeya

2006-03-07T16:16:00.000+01:00

... on his birthday.

See how beautifully he used words to create the magic. No predefined structure is followed, but still so rhythmic! Why did people call his writings akavita?

What exactly is this?

2006-03-03T17:36:00.000+01:00

I was surfing yesterday and found this article on BBC web-site. Through this article, I came to know about a tradition in United States during Thanksgiving dinner. They have a big celebration in the White House and turkey is the major attraction on dinner table. Roughly 300 million turkeys are raised annually, and around one-sixth of them are destined to Thanksgiving dinner plate. Two "lucky" turkeys among 2500 others specially raised for the White House dinner are selected by the President and are "pardoned". They are not cooked and are released. They are usually sent to a park called Frying Pan Park. I do not understand what exactly does it symbolise? In fact, I have some questions regarding this.

Birds are raised, not as someone who is supposed to enjoy life, but as the food. So the food scientists try to make sure that the product is as bulky as possible. Heart and lungs of birds raised this way do not support their body. They often die of heart attacks too! According to this link, "if a seven-pound human baby grew at the same rate that today's turkeys grow, when the baby reached 18 weeks of age it would weigh 1,500 pounds"! Now my point is, why not kill turkeys who have already been made so handicapped that they can not even bear their own weight, and why at the last moment change the mind and leave their life in the name of mercy, so as to let them die very soon, even a more painful death on their own!. In deed, most of the "pardoned" turkeys do not live long enough. They do not even remain to see next Thanksgiving day! Even for humans there is a provision of Euthanasia!

Another think which I can not understand is the terminology - "pardoning" birds. Have they already committed some crime from which, you being nice, are exempting them?

Titanic in 30 seconds!

2006-03-02T09:26:00.000+01:00

A wonderful example of summarising things. Watch Titanic just in 30 seconds without loosing any essential content! Click here and enjoy!
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This post is copied from here.
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A beautiful coincidence

2006-02-28T17:10:00.000+01:00

Some coincidences are just beautiful, like this one. Few days back in an article, I had mentioned Dharmavir Bharti, one of my favourite poets' name. Of course, the spell-check program was unable to identify it and instead suggested to use the word Dreamweaver.

This was a wonderful suggestion indeed. After all, this is precisely what he did throughout his life, and in fact one of his books is titled Sapna abhi bhi!

Buy Erdős numbers!

2006-02-24T19:33:00.000+01:00

While doing random surfing today, I came across this interesting information on Wikipedia:

On April 20, 2004 Bill Tozier, a researcher with Erdős number 4, offered the chance for collaboration to attain an Erdős number 5 in an auction on eBay. The final bid was $1,031.

Another eBay auction offered an Erdős number of 2 for a prospective paper to be submitted for publication to Chance (a magazine of the American Statistical Association) about skill in the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. It closed on 22 July 2004 with a winning bid of $127.40. This is noteworthy because with the exception of a few co-authored articles to be published posthumously, 2 is the minimum number that can now be achieved.

For the full article see this page.

A great chance for my ex-officemate to earn money!

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Copied from a Wikipedia article under "copyleft" License of GNU Free Documentation.

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Some crazy thoughts

2006-02-22T09:11:00.000+01:00

Today, that I have completed 10000 days since I was born, I am compelled to look back and think. The increment of digits, in some sense, is a rare phenomenon. Last time when it happened, I was too young to realise it, and next time, I won't be anymore in this world.

A question comes to my mind - "Isn't it too monotonous to be with one single person, me myself, for 10000 days?" Then I realise that the real me is an accumulation of so many people I have come across so far, and that's what fills so many colours in life. It was only my body with me all the time, but so many diversities within were picked from everyone around. So where is the question of monotony?

Idli-Dosa

2006-02-20T10:10:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer: Reading this post may lead head injuries or may spoil your day. This innocent blogger is not responsible for any damage caused.

Question:
What did Idli tell to Dosa?

Hint:

(i) Answer is not simple... may be it's Dimple then... or pimple?

(ii) From (i), you are unlikely to deduce the answer unless you know (iii).
(iii) It resembles a Hindi film song.

Answer:

To know the answer select the (hidden) text with your mouse from here --> "sambhar kinare dil ye pukare, tu jo nahi to mera koi nahi hai" <-- to here.

Sorry for the post!

On his birthday

2006-02-13T09:36:00.000+01:00

Almost a century ago on this day, Faiz Ahmed Faiz (@LOC, @Wiki) was born. I often regret for getting introduced to him very late in my life (another one such is Dharmavir Bharti). His piece of work which I came across first made me one of his everlasting fans. It was a poem called Nauha, which he wrote on the death of his brother. Such a wonderful and rare, yet so natural imagination. I immediately typed it in Devanagari and took a print out.

Sometimes I wonder, had he more words in his treasure or more feelings? In every poem of him, I find new words and untouched feelings. Ye daag daag ujala he wrote during partition applies equally to both sides of the border. His words reached a wider class of audience through the voice of Iqbal Bano, Tina Sani, Nayyara Noor and others. While listening Bahaar aayi, Bol ke lab, Hum dekhenge, Raat yoon dil mein, you realise the existence of Faiz somewhere around.

My tributes to him on the day when he would have completed 95 years of life, had he been alive.

Saraswati Puja

2006-02-12T16:00:00.000+01:00

It was a pleasant surprise to know that people here celebrate Saraswati Puja on a large scale. People with their origin in different parts of the world gather and celebrate this festival together. Last Sunday was puja day and I was there.

Apart from puja in the morning, there were cultural programmes in the evening. A very different and great experience in deed. A very homely feeling too, though we do not celebrate puja at our home!

Where are we going?

2006-02-08T17:12:00.000+01:00

I was excited to see a Hindi Newspaper online along with e-paper - exact replica of the print version. These things make one nostalgic when away from home. I was amazed to see Sunday's Kids' Corner section. I remember, to grab these pages first, we used to fight. But then, it was a shock to follow. There was an article for kids on Internet Safety, in which a typical sentence reads like:

Where are we heading to? Do we want to tell next generation that Hindi/Urdu words like prayog/istemaal, saavdhaani, maata-pita etc., are too strange to be used by the "educated" (or those who have got computers at their home)? Who will be responsible if we loose these words from the language after 20 years?

It's a pity that the whole Kids' section was like that. Computers, Mobiles, Video Games blah, blah... no Cheeku, Tinni, haathi, sher, khargosh. Why do we want to kill their imagination and take away some beautiful words from their own tongue?

An upcoming model

2006-02-07T14:01:00.002+01:00

The weather is coldest in my life and I find it difficult to believe that I can walk in 'minus'! The lake in the town has frozen and no surprise that I am excited about it. This made me take a round of the lake and click whatever I could. I was amazed to see this reflection from the ice.

And then another bird was kind enough to pose for me. First she demonstrated her cat-walk (bird-walk should I say?).

Then she invited me to take this picture of her:

I should say she has got all the characteristics of an upcoming model. But I am not in this kind of business and thus keeping my policy of neutrality, I can only say "Thanda matlab... lake frozen"!

The roots forgotten

2006-02-02T13:02:00.000+01:00

Human beings have thousands of ways to express themselves, after all there are thousands of spoken languages in the world. It's interesting to know how these languages evolved. Unfortunately, no one knows the exact answer and to trace the roots, one can only make guesses by looking at the grammar and words.

One of the first instances when I observed similarity in the words of English and Hindi was actually a doha by Kabir in school syllabus:

nindak niyare raakhiye, aangan kuTi chhabaay |
bin paani saabun bina, nirmal kare subhaay ||

(you should be surrounded by your critics for they will clean you without water and soap)

Here the word niyare stands for vicinity or nearness. And that's what surprised me. Later on, in my syllabus itself I learnt that in Russian, fire is called agni.

Another interesting word I have investigated in several languages is Potato, which is Patata in Italian and Spanish, Patates in Turkish and Potatis in Swedish, but more interestingly (not surprisingly though) Batata in Marathi as well as Portuguese! How did aaloo come then? This made me search the net and I found that it came from Sanskrit (read this post, completely devoted to aaloo).

Observe that all the languages mentioned above belong, by and large, to Indo-European family and most linguists agree on the way languages have been classified into families. So what surprised me is a similarity between a word in Hindi/Urdu and Moré, a West African language. In Turkish and Moré, which belongs to the family entirely different from Indo-European, world is called duniyaa! How come? I don't know.

Times changed, people moved from here to there, carried some words with them and left some. The process continued and languages kept getting new shapes. "Apni marzi se kahaan apne safar ke hum hain"...... and so are the languages!

Remembering Him

2006-01-30T17:31:00.000+01:00

This is what Sohan Lal Dwivedi said about him (an excerpt):

Online interface of ITRANS is acknowledged for writing text in Devanaagari.

Celebrations far away

2006-01-27T15:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was so special to me. I was surrounded by so many Indians away from home. I happened to take part in the flag hoisting ceremony on Republic Day. The programme was colourful, so were the sarees around! It was the first time when I saluted the flag across the miles and I do not know exactly why, but Jana Gana Mana echoed very differently inside. Then, there were Samosas, Gulab Jamuns and Chaay to follow!

May God continue showering His blessings on our nation.

These forty steps

2006-01-23T10:53:00.000+01:00

Exactly forty years ago, on January 23 1966 the time was frozen when the person who made India realise her dream of excelling into pure sciences, stepped out of his office. The very next day, he was dead and the pages on his desk calendar were never flipped again.

Bhabha was much ahead of his time. He was probably the first Indian who realised the importance of basic sciences in an era, when most fertile brains of the world were engaged in making bombs. Anyone could have questioned his intentions that time, but luckily no one did and the things went well.

Following years were of exponential growth in TIFR, but suddenly, he left everyone and those who remained had a challenging task of giving a more concrete shape to his dreams. In deed, they did their best.

"Why TIFR could not collect a single Nobel in last 60 years"? A very valid question, though at the first glance only, often raised (mostly by journalist type people, who have been caught saying that Stephen Hawking is a string theorist! Thank God, they are less aware of Fields Medal). I agree, medals do bring the prestige to the country, and to the lucky scientist in whose lab, people work hard to achieve, intentionally or unintentionally something which others find useful for the mankind. I am sure, medals do not judge the true intellect of the scientists and no one gives medals for nation building. Nation building is not merely an empty word, it has something inside and TIFR has achieved that.

Who would have expected 60 years ago from an institute of pure sciences to come up with the first indigenous computer TIFRAC? Later on, in late sixties when no one knew the meaning of a software, TIFR scientists and administrators initiated the idea of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and played a key role in its genesis. The first e-mail from India was sent from TIFR and establishments like NCST (now C-DAC) and SAMEER were side products of the institute's activities. GMRT was another show carried out by Indians under the guidance of the man who saw its dream. Medals can not count the value of these things. I do not think that it brings less pride to the "otherwise poor" country (as they would say), when they request us to let them use GMRT. Now even in Science Education and Olympiad activities, HBCSE has become hub of the country, and has even hosted two - Maths (1996) and Chemistry (2001) international olympiads.

I am not here to write an essay on 101 achievement of TIFR, but want to justify that the institute founded to carry out pure research, has contributed substantially to the nation's growth even after Bhabha's departure forty years ago.

That desk calendar still stays frozen in the auditorium named after him, which he could never see. The date of his last visit to the institute comes every year, and is an occasion for the institute to tell her creator that the show is still going on.

Identity Crisis

2006-01-20T17:13:00.000+01:00

"Are you a student"?

Not really. Actually, I am a post-doc here in the University.

"Meaning what"?

I am doing what one is supposed to do after PhD.

"Oh, so you teach there... but how can you teach, you do not know French"!

Well, I do not teach either.

"Then what do you do? What are you paid for"?

I do research.

"But just now you told that you have come here after doing your research".

That's right, you know, but I mean.......

And the common man stares suspiciously with thousands of unanswered questions in his eyes.

Outside the institute, I am badly suffering from an identity crisis. God, why didn't You make me a Software Engineer?

After an unsuccessful attempt to pick-up French from streets by overhearing this common man, I decided to enroll for a proper French course. It was the fourth time in my life, when I was about to take French lessons! I went to the School of Languages run by the University. They were happy to welcome me and asked if I have student's card. I failed to produce it. Then they asked for an staff card, and again I was blank. I showed them a poor card which I have, and they did not recognise it! I was told that I have to pay a huge sum for attending the classes, because I do not belong to the University.

I was angry, though very polite, and told them that I'll think again about joining the course. In the mean time, I came to know that there is another private institute near by, where I can try.

I decided to register in this institute. Getting a clue from my e-mail ID, that charming lady on the registration desk asked me if I am from the University. I said, "yes", though I was little scared this time. I also showed her the same poor card. "That's great! We offer you 10% discount because you belong to the University"!

Breaking the walls

2006-01-16T11:48:00.000+01:00

Usually, before reading the headlines on the front page of ToI, I keep nails ready to hit in my head. But today it was a different story and I was moved by the main headline "If I can reach finishing line, anyone can" - the coverage of yesterday's Mumbai Marathon.

This reminded me of Wilma Rudolph (@ESPN, @Wiki), a prematurely born brave lady who after suffering from polio in her childhood and being told by the doctors that she will never be able to walk, went onto breaking all Olympic records, including the one in 100 meters! Not only did she face physical challenges, but social ones too, like racism, poverty and gender-bias, and overcame all of them.

Hats off to her, and to those who finished yesterday's Marathon, despite all odds.

Looking back in time

2006-01-11T15:39:00.000+01:00

I remember myself feeling amazed when I came to know in my school that an object, when launched in the space with a velocity more than the escape velocity, leaves the earth! I was also told that this velocity is same for ALL objects, and that was another beautiful part. Months later, when our teacher asked us to calculate it and I could calculate the quantity 11.2 km/sec, matching with what I had read earlier, it was truly a remarkable feeling with plenty of joy. After all, The Nature had unfolded one of her secrets to me! I did not care if that was already a "well known" fact.

I had a similar feeling when I came to know that it is possible to add infinitely many numbers and still get a finite number! As a school-kid, I used to feel on the top of the world after knowing and realising such simple, yet amazing truths.

Time passed by, and I decided to pursue research. I just used to imagine the amount of joy, which I would have when God/The Nature would select me as the first person on this earth till date, to reveal one of her secrets!

Alas! Now it's a kind of routine work. I come across so many beautiful statements and facts so frequently, but where is that innocent joy which I had when I calculated escape velocity? Does coming across so many beautiful things in life so frequently, transfers your "beauty sensors" from your heart to your brain?

He made a poem alive

2006-01-07T16:38:00.000+01:00

This post is about two things. First - a poem, and second - a person who gave it a meaning.

The poem "Kyonki sapna hai abhi bhi", composed by my favourite, Dharmavir Bharti on his birthday in 1980, came to my mind after a long span of time yesterday. Starting lines are:

"kyonki sapna hai abhi bhi
isliye, talvaar tooti, ashwa ghaayal
kohare doobi dishaayein
kaun dushman, kaun apne log sab kuchh dhundh dhoomil
kintu kaayam yuddha ka sankalp apna hai abhi bhi
...... kyonki sapna hai abhi bhi"

The poem goes on and the striking lines come.....

"vida bela, yahi sapna bhaal par tumne
tilak ki tarah aankha tha
(ek yug ke baad ab, tumko kahaan yah yaad hoga)
kintu mujhko to isi ke liye jeena aur ladna
hai dhadhakti aag mein tapna abhi bhi
...... kyonki sapna hai abhi bhi"

and the poem continues......

This was all about the poem, and now about the person. He is Patrick, who was a cleaner in TIFR, now aged 65 plus and retired, still comes and works. When he was employed at TIFR, golden lifts near A - Block Reception looked as is they are really made of gold - without exaggeration not even an scratch! While at cleaning those lifts daily in the evening, if you make any remark and say something like "aap to lift ko bahut achchhe se rakhte ho", he would turn back and say "haan, Bhabha saab ne bola hai na achchha rakhne ko"! And thus Bharti's lines

"vida bela, yahi sapna bhaal par tumne
tilak ki tarah aankha tha
(ek yug ke baad ab, tumko kahaan yah yaad hoga)
kintu mujhko to isi ke liye jeena aur ladna
hai dhadhakti aag mein tapna abhi bhi
...... kyonki sapna hai abhi bhi"

come alive!

There is an interesting trivia about Patrick. In TIFR Hostel Quiz 2000, when the Quiz was over, the Quiz-master (it was Arvind Nair, I guess) asked an open question - "Who is the most hard working person in TIFR"? Without taking any time, 4-5 people among audience shouted - Patrick! In deed, it was the right answer!

I could do it!

2006-01-04T15:24:00.000+01:00

No surprise that I am a very bad cook. I won't blame myself for that. I was never forced by the circumstances to learn cooking. But now, when I have no choice, I have realised the possibility of a good cook within me!

Yesterday, a very strong urge to eat Desi khaana forced me to do googling and download recipes to cook mast spicy Bhaaji. I decided to try my hands on Aaloo-Gobhi Masala and collected all the ingredients from super-market. This being the first time, I decided to remain faithful to the downloaded instructions and not to apply my innovative ideas. Outcome was great! I had never imagined that I can make such tasty things. It was perhaps the most satisfying meal of my life!

When I was a kid, I used to wonder why all ladies wait with a pen and a paper for cook shows on TV. I always changed the Channel when I saw some big chef giving instructions to make things called Pasta Hot Pot or Mushroom Yum Yum. And now only, after so many years I am realising the importance of these cook shows. Truly said, "apni karni ka fal sabko milta hai".

Foie Gras: Revisited

2006-01-03T15:10:00.000+01:00

Last month I wrote a post Foie Gras: A Cruel Food. While roaming around the streets of Antwerp last week, I came across this sign-board:

The caption Voer voor sadisten (Dutch) translates to Food for sadists. I am happy that there is an organisation GAIA (Global Action in the Interest of Animals) working against cruelty on animals.

"Why are you a vegetarian"? This is a Frequently Asked Question here. Difficult to answer! When I say, "This is the way I have been brought up", they find it surprising, or even funny! Now I have found an even funnier answer. I'll tell them that I am vegetarian because I am a die-heart fan of Kate Winslet, who is a vegetarian.

One should never make a serious attempt to answer the questions of the form "Why are you the way you are"?

A great week

2006-01-01T13:28:00.000+01:00

What will you do in Christmas Holidays? People asked me few weeks back and I said I don't know. I was thinking of passing holidays like just other working days with monitor in the front and black-board in the back. When I came to know that the heating system of the institute will be shut down during this period, and it will be practically impossible for me to sit inside my office room, I decided to do something.

Planned to visit Paris, but the plan failed. Then I decided to move around the whole of Belgium in one week with some friends. In this one week, I could see almost every part of this small country - from Bruges to Namur and from Antwerp to Brussels. The best part of Brussels was the trip of Mini-Europe, a fun park where they have kept miniature of all major sites in Europe. Another major attraction was the Old England Music Museum, where all kinds of Musical instruments from all parts of world are kept. Best thing is that you can listen the sound of the instruments you are watching with a microphone. Here is a view of the city from fifth floor of Old England building.

and here is the beautiful clock at Antwerp station.

The week was great and I am back to work from tomorrow. I'll try to put photos on the net soon.

He stands there

2005-12-25T10:14:00.000+01:00

People are getting ready for the midnight mass on the eve of Christmas and he stands there on the streets of Leuven - a historical town destroyed twice by German troops during both World Wars. I happened to visit this place yesterday and saw him too. He is not alone, a bicycle and a musical instrument is there, which he plays. This instrument looks like a saxophone but sounds like a flute. He plays it wonderfully, eyes closed and no care whether people drop some coins. This was perhaps the best site I saw there. Much appealing to me than the art exhibition of Russian avant-garde movement, which I visited in Brussels only a few hours before this memorable site of Leuven.

I just wonder why this extra-ordinary person's financial condition is not even ordinary? I am happy that he still stands there - like his town which still stands even after being destroyed twice by Germans.

Bon Weekend

2005-12-18T16:42:00.000+01:00

This was certainly the best and the most happening weekend I had here. Suddenly coming across a restaurant called Namaste and having Paneer Dil-Bahaar with Kulcha and Elaichi Rice (never had this dish in India!) was enough to make the weekend great, but much more happened. A friend of my BSc days visited me from Denmark, we watched King Kong together in a multiplex, went to Brussels, moved around, did shopping and now I have my own DigiCam! And then today we went to Luxembourg (read Look-zaam-boorg). It is a rich place where practically every second building is a bank! Lots of photos and videos are there which are yet to be transferred to the computer.

Also came across two Indian restaurants called Taj Mahal and Bombay Inn, both names very close to my heart. Shall go there sometime to fill my stomach, to empty my wallet, and above all - to speak in Hindi with waiters!

Planning to make the next weekend too, as bon as possible. Have to prepare a talk for tomorrow.

The Shawshank Redemption

2005-12-15T12:32:00.000+01:00

Some things are better late than never. Though lately, I happened to watch yesterday a 1994 movie, The Shawshank Redemption - one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in recent times. The movie is about a person in a prison for a life sentence, about his inmates, and most importantly about hope. Today on IMDB I found that the movie is all time great - ranked second!

The courageous attempt of Andy (played by Tim Robbins) to escape from prison reminded me of "Kitani naavo mein kitani baar" a Jnanpith awarded work by Agyeya, particularly the lines "kuhaase mein pehchaanta hua tumhaara hi prabha-mandal - aashvast, aaklaant... main".

Only thing I can say about the movie - one who doesn't watch it, will probably miss something.

A meeting with East in the West!

2005-12-11T13:16:00.000+01:00

Matar-Paneer and Naan followed by a Ras-Malai! It's a dream food here and the dream came true yesterday. Thanks to that Pakistani shop in Brussels!

Yesterday, I happened to visit a Pakistani shop and looking at the stuff they were selling, I felt so homely. Daal, Rice, Pickles, Samosa, MDH Chat Masala and "Heat and Eat" stuff like Daal Makhaani, Baigan Bharta, Dum Aaloo, Matar-Paneer... and what not! I immediately added Bombay Biryani to my cart (just because its name sounded very homely - in India I never heard anything by this name!). After sometime I realised that cart was too heavy to carry, so I stopped picking more things. Best was yet to come... my conversation with the shop-keeper in "Hindustani". He told me that most of the things they sell, come from Karachi, Bombay and London. I was happy to realise that a political wall raised long back on a land did not divide the culture, food and life-style of its people. While making the bill, the shop-keeper realised my taste for sweets (since I had picked so many sweets!) and asked "Bhai, aap gaajar ka halwa nahi lenge kya"? Yum, yum (I thought) and said "kyon nahi, lekin mujhe dikhai nahi diya ki kahaan rakha hai halwa, deejiye na 250 gram". He smiled and said "aap poochhiye to har cheez haazir hai", turned around and shouted "Arif Bhai, 250 gram halwa lagaana". Again some familar words went into my ears!

It was a great experience. Would love to go that place again and again. By the way, gaajar ka halwa was simply fundoo!

Foie Gras: A Cruel Food

2005-12-09T12:17:00.000+01:00

Yesterday after the PhD viva of a student, there was a party to celebrate. The only thing I could take was Orange Juice. While drinking juice, I was offered something called Foie Gras (read Fwah Grah). I asked what it was? And the response was a horrible story. Foie Gras literally means "big liver". A duck is forced to eat food against its will, so as to grow the size of the liver. There are special long metal feeders which are inserted in duck's throat several times a day. There are pressure pumps on the other end of the feeder! This process continues for several weeks. When the liver is big enough (more than 10 times its normal healthy size), the bird is killed and the liver is taken out! I was shocked! I was told that it is very tasty and a great French delicacy.

How cruel the person who discovered this delicacy would have been? And I wonder how this algorithm to "create a great taste" came to his mind? Chheeeee.....

Three Myths - One Anwser!

2005-12-08T10:38:00.000+01:00

People here seem to have great mis-conception about India. One of the queries I came across - "People in India do not use blankets"? What made you think so, I asked. The person told that "Ramanujan did not use a blanket in England and died of cold"! Logical thought indeed!

Now the three myths which I came across:

"Indians are vegetarian, non-alcholic and worship an idol after getting up daily in the morning".
"Level of education in India is very poor".

And yesterday while I was surfing some bollywood news on rediff.com, a guy peeped onto the monitor and said,

I see lot of Indian movies because "Indian girls are beautiful"!

and the only thing I could do - I gave him a smile.

There is just one single anwser to all three myths, "Boss, go to TIFR and see"!

PS: Aum Shanti! Shanti!! Shanti!!!

St. Nicholas Day

2005-12-07T11:38:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was St. Nicholas day and in the night someone had secretly put a nice packet of Chocolates and Fruits on my door! Great surprise!! I must be one of the oldest "kids" to get such a gift. Thanks to the person (or the Saint?) who kept that packet.

The morning?

2005-12-06T13:03:00.000+01:00

What exactly is the morning? Is it when Sun rises in your locality, or is it when your clock is, say at 6:30 am? I never botherd about this question before, because in India there is not much difference in two phenomenons. But at a place like this, when the Sun-rise in winter is at 8:30 and people go for their work around 7:30, it does matter. Thank God, I am not bound to any fixed schedule! I decide daily to get up at 7:00, keep the alarm clock ready for it and then at 7:00 when the alarm rings, I realise that even the Sun is sleeping, so what's the point in me getting up! So I turn off the alarm and sleep again till Sun wakes me up. I am used to get up this way only! And today when I got up (at 8:15, I sleep here at around 11:00 pm!), a poem from my Class III Hindi book came into my mind. I distictly remember it was the first poem in the book and was written by Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay 'Harioudh' almost 100 years back! The poem (to the best of my recollection abilities), where a mother wakes up her child is:

"utho laal ab aankhein kholo
paani laayi hoon, mu.h dholo

beeti raat kamal-dal phoole
unke ooper bhanvre jhoole

chidiya chahak uthi pedo par
behne lagi hawa ati sundar

bhor huyi sooraj ug aaya
nabh mein huyi sunhari kaaya

aasmaan mein chhaayi laali
hawa bahi sukh dene waali

nanhi-nanhi kiranein aayein
phool ha.se kaliyaan muskaayein

itana sundar samay na kho
mere pyaare ab mat so"

Pata nahi yahaan bhor kab hoti hai?

Translating feelings?

2005-12-04T15:17:00.000+01:00

Feelings expressed through one language can not be translated into the other. Sometime back I used give to such an example - a song from the movie Mughal-e-Azam. Starting lines of this beautiful song by Shakeel Badayuni are:

"khuda nigeh-baan ho tumhaara
dhadakte dil ka payaam le lo
tumhaari duniya se ja rahe hain
utho hamaara salaam le lo".

Well, what motivated this post is not this song but something else. Yesterday for the first time in my life I could understand the fine resolution between two Hindi words: kriya and karma - and I feel there is no translation available which "preserves" this fine resolution. In Geeta Pravachan, a commentary of Bhagavad Geeta, Acharya Vinobha Bhave explains this difference between kriya and karma with the "following" (kind of) example: In a class of students making noise, the class monitor shouts "do not make noise", and the class is silent. However for the class teacher, it is enough to put a finger on her lips and whisper "shhh....". If an inspector comes to the school, then the class is already silent. The presene of inspector is enough! In the three cases, the karma is same but kriyas are not, and can be categorised as teevra, saumya and sookshma.

The best "translation" of karma and kriya, I could find only in the language of Physics - kriya = (force) X (distance) and karma = displacement. Any better explaination or translation?

Nirmal Verma and his river

2005-12-03T14:37:00.000+01:00

This post, in some sense is a continuation of an earlier post, though it is self-contained and can be read individually.

Nirmal Verma (@LOC, @Wikipedia) is not an unknown figure in Hindi literature. In July this year, I came to know that Hindi books of NCERT have changed and are available with new names (Samvaad, Vaasanti) as opposed to Parag, Swati in my time. I went to a near by book shop and picked them. One of the first few Chapters I came across in one of these books was titled "Mere liye Bhartiya hone ka arth" - The meaning of being an Indian to me. Such a poetic, yet very accurate and rational essay I had never read before, and the author was Nirmal Verma.

In the beginning of this essay he recalls one of his childhood memories. Once he was travelling with his mother by a train, a river-bridge came and his mother asked him to throw some coins in the river and fold his hand (a typical Indian way to pay respect to elderly ones). The author did it. He was told by the mother that he should love and respect all rivers as much as her, The own mother!

Indians are told in their childhood to call a river, a cow, the land (Bharatmata), or a goddess (maan Saraswati) etc., a Mother. And when a mother tells her child to do so, it requires a feeling of great sacrifice from mother's side. Logically speaking, a mother has exclusive right on her child and she should be unhappy if her child starts calling something (that too non-living) as mother! But life does not always go logically and this "illogical" feeling of Indian mothers is what makes them unique.

Coming back to the essay - The essay ends with the following beautiful lines:

"... lekin us shaam maine uski ek jhalak dekhi thi jab maine apni maan ke kehne par pul ke neeche bahti nadi mein paise fenke the. Meri maan ab nahi hain, lekin sochta hoon wah nadi ab bhi hai. Prarthana karta hoon ki bilkul sookh nahi gayi hai."

The little kid grows up and tries to locate his mother in the river. So after reading this essay how can I resist if someone tells me that a river is non-living!

PS: A friend helped me recalling the excerpts from the essay. Thanks to her.

Whole month away

2005-11-30T18:36:00.000+01:00

Wedneday, November 30 2005..... and that completes my "first calendar month outside India".

Wo kamra yaad aata hai

2005-11-30T17:34:00.000+01:00

Main jab bhi zindagi ki chilchilatee dhoop mein tapkar

Main jab bhi doosron ke aur apne jhooth see thak kar
Main sabse lad ke khud se haar ke
Jab bhi us ik kamre mein jaata tha
Wo halke aur gehre katthai rangon ka ik kamra
Wo behad meherbaan kamra
Jo apni narm mutthi mein mujhe aise chhupa leta tha
Jaise koi maan bachche ko aanchal mein chhupa le
Pyaar se daante,
"Ye kya aadat hai, jalti dopahar mein maare maare ghoomte ho tum"

Wo kamra yaad aata hai

Dabeez aur khaasa bhaari kuch zara mushkil se khulne waala
wo sheesham ka darwaaza

Ki jaise koi akkhad baap apne khurdare seene mein
shafqat ke samandar ko chuupaye ho

Wo kursi, aur uske saath wo judwaan bahen uski
Wo dono dost thein meri

Wo ik gustakh munhphat aaina,
jo dil ka achchha tha

Wo behangam si almari,
jo kone mein khadi ik boodhi anna ki tarah
aaine ko tambeeh karti thee

Wo ik guldaan, nanha sa, bahut shaitan,
un dono pe hansta tha

Dareecha ya zahanat se bhari ik muskurahat
aur dareeche pe jhuki wo bel
Koi sabz sargoshi

Kitabein taakh mein aur shelf par sanjeeda ustaani bani baithein
Magar sab muntazir is baat ki main unse kuchh poochoon

Sirhane neend ka saathi, thakan ka charagar wo narm dil takiya
Main jiski god mein sir rakh ke chhat ko dekhta tha

Chhat ki kadiyon mein na jane kitne afsanon ki kadiyaan thein

Wo chhoti mez par aur saamne deewar par aawezaan tasveerein
Mujhe apnaiyat aur yaqeen se dekhtein thein, muskuratein thein

Unhein shak bhi nahi tha, ik din main unko aise chhod jaoonga
Main ik din yoon bhi jaoonga, ki phir wapas na aaoonga

Main ab jis ghar mein rehta hun, bahut hi khoobsoorat hai

Magar aksar yahan khamosh baitha yaad karta hoon

Wo kamra baat karta tha....!

This is a poem by Javed Akhtar from his Album Tarkash. You may see the meanings of tough words and the poem in Devnagari script on the web-site.

Only in India?

2005-11-28T18:10:00.000+01:00

Our sense of beauty and appreciation for aesthetics comes from the culture we have grown into, and when it comes to personify non-living objects, I think Indians have an edge over the rest of the world. But first - Why personification and aesthetics are so related? We want to perceive things in the most beautiful way (perhaps the way we, the human beings are) and try to locate faces, eyes and even emotions in those non-living things. Biologically many things may be non-living, but still there is a certain amount of life in those things which forces us to identify those things with us.

In my perception, a river is as dynamic and hence as alive as any other living creature. I'll say a river has more life than us - our lives stay for, say 80 years, but a rivers flows and is the witness of several human generations for centuries and millenniums.

This comparision of humans with a river came to my mind for two reasons: First - when someone here asked me the meaning of a Hindi song I was listening to ("Kaisee hai ye rut" from DCH, read its second stanza) and another was the news of passing away of Nirmal Verma, a well-known name in Hindi Literature.

I told someone here that in "Kaisee hai ye rut" the river is being compared to a lady who goes to meet her beloved, The Ocean - and the person replied - "Crazy!". I realised that he was not able to understand (forget apreciation) the beauty which lies in the words of the song. I do not blame him for it bacause the kind of culture he was grown into didn't see any beauty in comparing a river with a lady.

The second reason for writing this blog, as I have mentioned, is the death of Nirmal Verma last month. I'll mention the details in a future blog.

PS: The "future blog" promised above is available here.