Ram Janm Bhoomi Aandolan

Better late than never. The D Day finally came after much hoopla, the previous time. A historic decision, I must say; by the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad Highcourt. The verdict is totally based upon facts and I am glad that it has come out the way it should have.    
2/3 of the 3 land parts divided have been given for the Ram Janm Bhoomi cause and the rest One-third to the Waqf Board. Hindu Mahasabha takes one part and the other goes to Nirmohi Akhada.

Meanwhile, MIT  is seeing a 2 day holiday as the whole of Karnataka is seeing. Today and tomorrow remain off days in light of the verdict. Section 144 of IPC in action today at most of the places in India. To my surprise, even MIT got it.   :)
Anyway, nice developments throughout the day. Its late already. Shubhratri!!!

Jai Shri Ram!!!     

The Stormy Manipal

 The usual till 6 am sleep. Got up to know that I missed one of the most violent and stormy nights of Manipal.
Thunderstorm broke out earlier in the night when I was asleep. My window panes got automatically closed by the strong winds to leave me undisturbed, unperturbed. But, I missed some special moments as my friends called the whole episode.
Rightly so! While on my way of my college the devastation caused is before us to see. How Nature prevails in the end and how nature comes out to be the strongest in the end.

 Some friends on facebook posted videos of the storm and after viewing them, I could only curse my window panes.

Again, superb morning. Only one class. Assignment submission.

Coming back to the stormy night, it brought with it the much needed relief from the lethal heat of Manipal but at the same time caused some major destruction. The roof of the Sindhi Mess on a sky tour. Trees uprooted.

 Kamath Circle's huge Hoarding frame down to the ground. Streets blocked ... and what not...

Hope to see some more of them without a damage of that magnitude.

Had to speed post one letter. While on the way, tried a shortcut and paid the the price. Soiled my feet and clothes. But again, there is nothing comparable to such experience. I enjoyed it.
PEDD exam on Monday. Need to study hard this time.

Walked all the way to the post office and back to hostel. Have to see the doctor tomorrow for the MRI Analysis.
Catch you later....  Good Night!!!                                                                      

RAINS!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY...3 years in Manipal... and the BEST NIGHT OF MY COLLEGE LIFE CAME BY JUST NOW.... The best rains i have ever seen in MAnipal ... Reluctantly I stepped out to taste the water.. :) and stayed for about an hour outside!!!... :D.. Ran till KC with some friends (at 4 pm)... jumped into the puddles... Shouted in the topmost voices... Hid behind some buildinds to escape campus patrol :P....With the chilling wind and the most frightening Lighting...!!!
OMG this is LIFE..cant get back to sleep... !! In love with LIFE and RAINS...

Moments to cherish

A good start makes your day. Got up at 6am, decided to pass some time with Mother Nature. When you go down behind the area between the Annapoorna mess and the 10th block, the scenic beauty you come across, is simply majestic. Some call it Smoker's Paradise as it gives them a safe place for their favorite cuisine but I would prefer to call it Nature's Inn. It gives you some of the most rare sights, astonishing views of colorful Peacocks strolling around against the most serene backgrounds possible. I tried to take some snaps of them but every time I reached close to them (I had to jump over the MIT boundary wall to get to the other side with my bruised and battered knees), they fled away.

Nature's Inn

Hoping to get some close impressions in a day or few. The adventurer soul in me has been reinvigorated to new levels. The morning was beautiful. I wonder how many such lovely mornings I have missed here since the inception of my life@Manipal. These days, don't know how but I am managing to wake up at 6 on a regular basis and it really feels great to feel the cool breeze of the morning. Yeah! Specially when Manipal boils later during the day.

I had to jump over this wall

Came back to the hostel longing for more. Then College as usual. Half day. One class in the first half cancelled (HOD). Then, had some talks with Dr. Adhikari (Mech) and Dr. Chandavar about the future of our ongoing project. Things are not going the way we had wanted them to go.
D-Day ..1 pm. MRI SCAN of my left knee. To add twist to the tale, I misplaced the MRI referral form and went to the hospital without it. There, I came to know its not possible to conduct it without the form as it contained the specifications by the Doctor. The same doctor was not present today but somehow I

to get to this side

managed to get a duplicate of it by another doctor. The whole thing was done in a record time as I showed utter signs of urgency. All of them cooperated and my file reached the dept. in 2 mins. (usually takes around 30 mins to 1 hour to 2 hours to infinity..;) ). The last time I visited the MRI/CT scan center for CT Scan of my brain, and there was one unfortunate fire accident in my presence. There was no loss but it did give some tense and nervous moments to all.
The MRI was done by Dr. Basina, a very caring and soft spoken young lady in 35 mins and I need to see the doctor on Sunday for further analysis of the reports and ailment.

The MRI Scanner at KMC

Meanwhile, the Industrial training problem has not been sorted out yet. No one knows what is in store. But again, as they say.. Never lose hope is the moral of the story.
Some works of today postponed to tomorrow.
Back to the room in the evening. Cricket! Chit-Chats with friends. and now with my blogspot.

Lastly a thought for one of my close friends who was a bit down today in the class--- "Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it." and you are at your best when you keep smiling :) Shubhratri!!! n yeah:: tomorrow is Sachin's birthday "the great Sir Sachin Tendulkar" Happy Birthday Sir. Someone truly said "When God wanted to play cricket, Sachin was born!"

Here I am .. AJ

@jha.. thanks for mentioning me...

Its been a wonderful journey in manipal ... with work we have done and and time we spent together as friends...

Today I want to share this...

"Not Satisfied with LIFE??? Good.. u shudnt be. thats what keeps you going.. longing for that BIT more of it.. and thats when you stretch yourself to reach for IT.."

22nd April,2010.

One of the best times to write is when you can't do anything else. Both of my knees have some mysterious problems which shall be unearthed tomorrow at KMC by MRI Scan. Appointment at 1pm. Moreover I have bruised my right knee badly while playing cricket which is giving me fair amount of trouble while walking. So, the tone is set.. let's record something...

Hectic day altogether with some relief at the end. 3rd Sessionals got over yesterday and I had to submit the lab journal today. Completed it in the class today. Our HOD is on leave till Monday, so Industrial Training transactions are destined to be delayed. Lab till 5! Sutta Point with Ankit Mittal ! back to room, cricket at the 10th block gardens with bruised knees! back to room, and finally some respite. Google talk brought the relief, talks with a school friend- Radha and then with one of my closest pals AJ. Topics varied for both of them.
Then dinner, on the way back accompanied by AJ and had a long conversation on the sad state of affairs at Manipal, specially our college. It was good to talk to a close friend after so long. You don't get much time for interacting with friends, specially during these tumultuous times (exam season boss!!!). This guy has been a real support for me. The conversation ended on a positive note with a resolution to act asap. Not to forget the inputs of Kullu (especially chicken and Darwin).. back to the comforts of my room now.. May peace prevail. Good Night. Let's see what comes out tomorrow.. :)

Tagore and Einstein

Unique piece of conversation between two of the greatest minds of their times, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Sir Albert Einstein. Lucky to come across this.. collected by Avijit Roy, I reproduce it for my readers from "http://opajdara.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/rabindranath-tagore-albert-einstein/". My sincere thanks to the wordpress blogger.

JULY 14, 1930 ON THE NATURE OF REALITY

[Excerpted from - "Einstein and Tagore Plumb the truth : Scientist and Poet Exchange Thoughts on the possibility of its Existence without relation to Humanity" by Dmitri Marianoff, published in NewYork Times, August 10, 1930]

Near Potsdam is a small place called Caputh. There, upon a hill, stands a brown wooden house with a red tile roof. Round about, like sentinels, stand the slim trunks of pine trees. In the wooden villa dwells the mathematician, Albert Einstein.

At about 4 o’clock one recent afternoon Rabindranath Tagore walked along the sandy path to the house. he wore a suit of soft, blue cloth; he leaned a bit forward as he walked and one hand was bent behind his back. Beside him stood sturdy, erect Einstein …

TAGORE: You have been busy, hunting down with mathematics, the two ancient entities, time and space, while I have been lecturing in this country on the eternal world of man, the universe of reality.
EINSTEIN: Do you believe in the divine isolated from the world?
TAGORE: Not isolated. The infinite personality of man comprehends the universe. There cannot be anything that cannot be subsumed by the human personality, and this proves that the truth of the universe is human truth.
EINSTEIN: There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe – the world as a unity dependent on humanity, and the world as reality independent of the human factor.
TAGORE: When our universe is in harmony with man, the eternal, we know it as truth, we feel it as beauty.
EINSTEIN: This is a purely human conception of the universe.
TAGORE: The world is a human world – the scientific view of it is also that of the scientific man. Therefore, the world apart from us does not exist; it is a relative world, depending for its reality upon our consciousness. There is some standard of reason and enjoyment which gives it truth, the standard of the eternal man whose experiences are made possible through our experiences.
EINSTEIN: This is a realization of the human entity.
TAGORE: Yes, one eternal entity. We have to realize it through our emotions and activities. We realize the supreme man, who has no individuaL limitations, through our limitations.
Science is concerned with that which is not confined to individuals; it is the impersonal human world of truths. Religion realizes these truths and links them up with our deeper needs. Our individual consciousness of truth gains universal significance. Religion applies values to truth, and we know truth as good through own harmony with it. EINSTEIN Truth, then, or beauty, is not independent of man?
TAGORE: No, I do not say so.
EINSTEIN: If there were no human beings any more, the Apollo Belvedere no longer would be beautiful?
TAGORE: No!
EINSTEIN: I agree with this conception of beauty, but not with regard to truth.
TAGORE Why not? Truth is realized through men.
EINSTEIN I cannot prove my conception is right, but that is my religion.
TAGORE Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony, which is in the universal being; truth is the perfect comprehension of the universal mind. We individuals approach it through our own mistakes and blunders, through our accumulated experience, through our illumined consciousness. How otherwise can we know truth?
EINSTEIN: I cannot prove, but I believe in the Pythagorean argument, that the truth is independent of human beings. It is the problem of the logic of continuity.
TAGORE : Truth, which is one with the universal being, must be essentially human; otherwise, whatever we individuals realize as true, never can be called truth. At least, the truth which is described as scientific and which only can be reached through the process of logic – —in other words, by an organ of thought which is human. According to the Indian philosophy there is Brahman, the absolute truth, which cannot be conceived by the isolation of the individual mind or described by words, but can be realized only by merging the individual in its infinity. But such a truth cannot belong to science. The nature of truth which we are discussing is an appearance; that is to say, what appears to be true to the human mind, and therefore is human, and may be called maya, or illusion.
EINSTEIN It is no illusion of the individual, but of the species.
TAGORE: The species also belongs to a unity, to humanity. Therefore the entire human mind realizes truth; the Indian and the European mind meet in a common realization.
***
EINSTEIN: The word species is used in German for all human beings; as a matter of fact, even the apes and the frogs would belong to it. The problem is whether truth is independent of our consciousness.
TAGORE: What we call truth lies in the rational harmony between the subjective and objective aspects of reality, both of which belong to the superpersonal man.
EINSTEIN: We do things with our mind, even in our everyday life, for which we are not responsible. The mind acknowledges realities outside of it, independent of it. For instance, nobody may be in this house, yet that table remains where it is.
TAGORE: Yes, it remains outside the individual mind, but not the universal mind. The table is that which is perceptible by some kind of consciousness we possess.
EINSTEIN: If nobody were in the house the table would exist all the same, but this is already illegitimate from your point of view, because we cannot explain what it means, that the table is there, independently of us. Our natural point of view in regard to the existence of truth apart from humanity cannot be explained or proved, but it is a belief which nobody can lack – —not even primitive beings. We attribute to truth a superhuman objectivity. It is indispensable for us – —this reality which is independent of our existence and our experience and our mind – though we cannot say what it means.
TAGORE: In any case, if there be any truth absolutely unrelated to humanity, then for us it is absolutely non-existing.
EINSTEIN: Then I am more religious than you are!
TAGORE: My religion is in the reconciliation of the superpersonal man, the universal spirit, in my own individual being.

AUGUST 19, 1930 ON MODERN PHYSICS, MUSIC ETC.

[Excerpted from "Three conversations: Tagore Talks with Einstein, with Rolland, and Wells" (ASIA 3/1931, p.139-143,196 f.)]

TAGORE: I was discussing with Dr. Mendel today the new mathematical discoveries which tell us that in the realm of infinitesimal atoms chance has its play; the drama of existence is not absolutely predestined in character.
EINSTEIN: The facts that make science tend toward this view do not say good-bye to causality.
TAGORE: Maybe not, yet it appears that the idea of causality is not in the elements, but that some other force builds up with them an organized universe.
EINSTEIN: One tries to understand in the higher plane how the order is. The order is there, where the big elements combine and guide existence, but in the minute elements this order is not perceptible.
TAGORE: Thus duality is in the depths of existence, the contradiction of free impulse and the directive will which works upon it and evolves an orderly scheme of things.
EINSTEIN: Modern physics would not say they are contradictory. Clouds look as one from a distance, but if you see them nearby, they show themselves as disorderly drops of water.
TAGORE: I find a parallel in human psychology. Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellious, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?
EINSTEIN: Even the elements are not without statistical order; elements of radium will always maintain their specific order, now and ever onward, just as they have done all along. There is, then, a statistical order in the elements.
TAGORE: Otherwise, the drama of existence would be too desultory. It is the constant harmony of chance and determination which makes it eternally new and living.
EINSTEIN: I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.
TAGORE: There is in human affairs an element of elasticity also, some freedom within a small range which is for the expression of our personality. It is like the musical system in India, which is not so rigidly fixed as western music. Our composers give a certain definite outline, a system of melody and rhythmic arrangement, and within a certain limit the player can improvise upon it. He must be one with the law of that particular melody, and then he can give spontaneous expression to his musical feeling within the prescribed regulation. We praise the composer for his genius in creating a foundation along with a superstructure of melodies, but we expect from the player his own skill in the creation of variations of melodic flourish and ornamentation. In creation we follow the central law of existence, but if we do not cut ourselves adrift from it, we can have sufficient freedom within the limits of our personality for the fullest self-expression.

Tagore and Einstien : A memorable moment. (Courtesy : Ms. Sabina Chowdhury)

EINSTEIN: That is possible only when there is a strong artistic tradition in music to guide the people’s mind. In Europe, music has come too far away from popular art and popular feeling and has become something like a secret art with conventions and traditions of its own.
TAGORE: You have to be absolutely obedient to this too complicated music. In India, the measure of a singer’s freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer’s song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.
EINSTEIN: It requires a very high standard of art to realize fully the great idea in the original music, so that one can make variations upon it. In our country, the variations are often prescribed.
TAGORE: If in our conduct we can follow the law of goodness, we can have real liberty of self-expression. The principle of conduct is there, but the character which makes it true and individual is our own creation. In our music there is a duality of freedom and prescribed order.
EINSTEIN: Are the words of a song also free? I mean to say, is the singer at liberty to add his own words to the song which he is singing?
TAGORE: Yes. In Bengal we have a kind of song-kirtan, we call it-which gives freedom to the singer to introduce parenthetical comments, phrases not in the original song. This occasions great enthusiasm, since the audience is constantly thrilled by some beautiful, spontaneous sentiment added by the singer.
EINSTEIN: Is the metrical form quite severe?
TAGORE: Yes, quite. You cannot exceed the limits of versification; the singer in all his variations must keep the rhythm and the time, which is fixed. In European music you have a comparative liberty with time, but not with melody.
EINSTEIN: Can the Indian music be sung without words? Can one understand a song without words?
TAGORE: Yes, we have songs with unmeaning words, sounds which just help to act as carriers of the notes. In North India, music is an independent art, not the interpretation of words and thoughts, as in Bengal. The music is very intricate and subtle and is a complete world of melody by itself.
EINSTEIN: Is it not polyphonic?
TAGORE: Instruments are used, not for harmony, but for keeping time and adding to the volume and depth. Has melody suffered in your music by the imposition of harmony?
EINSTEIN: Sometimes it does suffer very much. Sometimes the harmony swallows up the melody altogether.
TAGORE: Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.
EINSTEIN: It is a beautiful comparison; line is also much older than color. It seems that your melody is much richer in structure than ours. Japanese music also seems to be so.
TAGORE: It is difficult to analyze the effect of eastern and western music on our minds. I am deeply moved by the western music; I feel that it is great, that it is vast in its structure and grand in its composition. Our own music touches me more deeply by its fundamental lyrical appeal. European music is epic in character; it has a broad background and is Gothic in its structure.
EINSTEIN: This is a question we Europeans cannot properly answer, we are so used to our own music. We want to know whether our own music is a conventional or a fundamental human feeling, whether to feel consonance and dissonance is natural, or a convention which we accept.
TAGORE: Somehow the piano confounds me. The violin pleases me much more.
EINSTEIN: It would be interesting to study the effects of European music on an Indian who had never heard it when he was young.
TAGORE: Once I asked an English musician to analyze for me some classical music, and explain to me what elements make for the beauty of the piece.
EINSTEIN: The difficulty is that the really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.
TAGORE: Yes, and what deeply affects the hearer is beyond himself.
EINSTEIN: The same uncertainty will always be there about everything fundamental in our experience, in our reaction to art, whether in Europe or in Asia. Even the red flower I see before me on your table may not be the same to you and me.
TAGORE: And yet there is always going on the process of reconciliation between them, the individual taste conforming to the universal standard.

---