the land they call organized chaos

GSec GKeshari

2009-10-21T20:03:00.014+05:30

I do not remember if I have written a post about my friends before; I have probably not. But this time it is special. The post is about my very close friend Govind, who celebrates his birthday today!

I have not been in IITB for days; first due to my prolonged illness and the actuarial science exams. The illness cost me a lot of days and I am having a hard time completing studying for the CTs. I am staying at home, and the saddest part about the CTs this time is probably that I had an exam today and I couldn't be in college to wish Govind. So I take this opportunity to say something about him and our friendship in this post, which I will probably never say to him in person. But if you are new to this blog, you must be wondering...

Who the hell is Govind??

Govind is my classmate in IITB. He is the General Secretary of our Math Department. He hails from Chandauli District of Uttar Pradesh. Govind is one smart chap. He is most of the time topping the class in the incessant tests and quizzes that are held every week or so. He is an NBHM scholarship awardee. No mean feat, that is (He bought a laptop with the money!). He is very witty and always has the class in splits with his jokes and has great timing too (His "Gappu ka Pappu peeche hai!" is legendary!). He is always dependent on Arun for solutions to math problems, but seldom realises that he is good at them too. That is one area where I have found him lacking-Self-confidence. If Govind develops that in him, it will be really great for him.

Govind and I during Freshers' 2009

But what makes Govind and me such great friends?

We share the same ambition. Govind wants to be an IAS officer. He is the first person I know who shares my ambition. I have found in him the friend I really wanted all these years. None of the people I knew before him, think like me. Govind has been through a lot. He is the first person from his family to study science and that too in an IIT. He has also had to face many struggles that a small town boy might face. He cracked the BHU entrance test and graduated in Math. And then stood 2nd in JAM to come here in IITB. He had to face many problems. He tells me he studied in the light of a kerosene lamp for his exams. His house was not too far away from BHU but transport was a problem. It used to take him four hours to cover just 30 km to get to his house. I can never fully understand his struggles and sacrifices, but I am happy and proud of him that he made it this far.

How the IAS became his ambition is another story. He had a divine revelation one day when confronted by his parents to leave his lady love. "Yeh tum kya kar rahe ho? Desh ke liye kuch karo," he said to himself. And he dumped his girlfriend. Just like that. Govind and I spend hours talking about the economy, the WTO, policy-making, state of our country... I am amazed by his maturity and awareness about issues and challenges facing our country and proud of his fire-in-the-belly to do something about them. We learn so much from each other. If you ask him, he'll say that he learnt a lot from me. But his experiences have been an eye-opener for me. They have brought to me stories of an India I never knew. "Tune desh nahi dekha hai,"he tells me. And it is so true! One thing I am happy about is, that just like he has come here to my hometown, even I have been to what we can safely call his hometown, Varanasi.

His marks have tumbled this term as he is bracing himself to chase his ambition after IITB. I am sure he'll crack the Civil Services Exam next year. He is working hard, and his knowledge is increasing exponentially these days. His grip over English has also improved. You can see that from his Tweets.

What makes Govind so special to me?

Like I said before, he is the friend I always wanted. I have many friends, but none like Govind. He has been an inspiration and I consider myself fortunate to be his friend.

To the only IAS Officer I personally know:

Happy Birthday Govind!

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The Karnala Conquest

2009-10-03T11:54:00.013+05:30

Yesterday, the Department of Mathematics, IIT Bombay organised its first 'official' trip of the year to Karnala Bird Sanctuary, on the Bombay-Goa Highway near Panvel. We hired the 'official' IIT Bombay bus, to take us to Karnala. After a breakfast of 'Pohe' and tea; we began our climb up to the Karnala Fort within the sanctuary. Among us, were experienced trekkers like Arun, Siddharth, and even me! In spite of clear instructions to wear the necessary footwear, some people still showed up in slippers! The climb was arduous for some and many began to give up after walking only a few hundred metres. But the others egged them on. Ojas pulled a muscle and Abhishek fell on his leg, spraining it. He was limping for most of the trek. But Ojas and Abhishek both showed gumption and carried on steadily up the steep trail to the fort. Pappu and Navin were leading the trek and were the first to reach the Fort. I was trekking along with GSec Govind, Cult Secy Bunk, Ashish, Yogendra, Uma, Riddhi and Manoj for most of the while. We used to stop at various spots and soak in the view from my binoculars. Everyone used my binocs to see the sprawling Sanctuary below. The 450 metre Fort is reached through a 4km trail that has many perils along the way. This made it a bit 'risky' as Bunk put it. Due to the hot and humid weather, and inexperience of many of the trekkers, many were gulping down water by the buckets and we ran out of water as soon as we reached the top. Thankfully Arundhati had some water with her to give to Ojas, Siddharth and Abhishek as they at last made it to the top. The first and foremost principle of trekking is: conserve water.

The top of the Fort offered a breathtaking view of the Sanctuary below. The climb back down was more difficult than the climb up, as we had to negotiate some dangerous sections of rock cut steps. The trail was laid with loose stones and mud and that made it quite slippery. Many slipped, me too. But thankfully no one was seriously hurt. After we came down, we had lunch and whiled our time away playing Dumb Charades before we embarked on the journey back to IIT Bombay. Our class played 'Mafia' on the bus, and many of us are now hooked to the game. Poor Abhishek was the only big casualty and was left nursing his terribly sprained leg after we came back. A special mention has to be made about Bibek, who played football till 3am in the night before and trekked with us in spite of running a fever of 100F. Siddharth, Yogendra and Govind showed environmental consciousness as they kept the trail clean by picking up plastic bottles thrown away by others.

Below is a Picasa slideshow of photos of the Karnala trek taken from my cam. The pics taken by Abhishek can be seen on his Picasa site.

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The Pittsburgh Pitstop

2009-09-25T19:13:00.009+05:30

I cannot believe that I have not blogged for almost a month, leading up to this post! Maybe it was the mid-sem or the change of base to Pluto; perhaps a blogger's block or the new rage, Twitter. But those are no excuses to disappear from the blogosphere for such a long time. Govind and Abhishek, have been urging me to blog. I was on the look out for a topic, and Govind suggested, why not blog about the G-20 meet in Pittsburgh, USA? I said, well, why not?

As I blog this, leaders of a self-anointed group that decides the economic course for the entire globe are meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to debate on a variety of issues; from evaluating the road to recovery after the recent economic slowdown to charting a new framework for the world's financial system, that will prevent another meltdown. They will be taking stock of the lessons learnt from the recent credit crisis, and how the global economic system will guard itself against too-good-to-be-true financial products that keep rearing their ugly heads on the Streets. Dangerous levels of exposure to untried and untested-even illegal-debt instruments was the reason behind the caving-in of Wall Street behemoths like the Lehman Brothers. Some like, Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae received life support from the US Government. But a few others like Lehman were allowed to implode, taking with them investor confidence and sense of financial security, that engulfed the whole world in a pall of gloom. Now after a year, the new engines of global economic growth, India and China, are getting out of the so-called recession in their domestic markets and surfing a new wave of consumption-led growth. In an increasingly Asia-dominated world, the relevance of the G-20 and its policies and actions will be under the microscope in Pittsburgh. Can the developed nations, along with new power-centres like India and China come to agree on a common framework to re-direct efforts for financial recovery, and put the worst crisis in recent memory behind them?

Pittsburgh, USA

One hard lesson to have come out is, stocking dollars is probably not a country's best bet. The need to diversify export markets and not just be a large trading partner of the US has emerged as an important policy agenda of different countries. Exploring new markets and diversifying the exports basket will be on top of policy-makers' minds. But here is a catch. Governments are turning to protectionist policies to drive up domestic production and consumption. Re-energising entire sectors that have been in a hole for a year requires infusion of money, referred to as a 'stimulus package' and new tax regimes. The resurrection of comatose industries requires nipping the flood of cheaper imports from other countries that have been equally hit by the recent economic crisis. But these countries are just boosting their exports by helping their own domestic industries, right? One man's terrorist is another man's friend, right? Wrong!

This is exactly why the leaders are meeting in Pittsburgh. To chart out a path to recovery that will be acceptable to all stake-holders. More importantly, there is a need for monetary policy-makers to come together and develop new regulations for the global financial system. One that will have checks in place and uniform rules across the board for trading in untested financial instruments. But here lies the problem. No one is quite sure of what these rules and checks should be, and how much protectionism are they going to allow to be weaned away from them. Reminds you of Doha, anyone?

The summit will be a great test of the relevance of G-20. They need to come to agree upon various issues if the group is to be taken seriously. Otherwise we may not have seen the last of the 'big bubbles just waiting to burst'. Some pundits are predicting a W-shaped recovery. It is up to the G-20 leaders that it stays U.

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* Tailpiece *

The major change to have happened since I last blogged is that our class in IITB is no longer HIV- The Incurables. With the exception of our Class Rep Ojas, all of us have moved to a colder, more distant world, HIX-Pluto, just like the eponymous former planet. With marginally better mess food, our new home is treating us well, I hope it stays that way. Abhishek and I are roomies no more but we do make it a point to loaf off in each other's rooms. Also, my comp in my room makes up in part for his absence(I know he'll kick me for writing this!)!

This Wednesday, I was in Khagol Mandal, editing the coming issue of the club magazine, 'Vaishwik'. I went scissor happy, after Dilip Sir gave me a free hand to 'tear articles apart' as he put in Marathi. It was a different experience to edit a magazine. I hope I get this chance every issue. I learnt elementary editing techniques. I hope to learn type-setting next!
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H4 cha Ganaraya!

2009-08-29T19:27:00.013+05:30

Gajanana shri ganraya aadhi vandu tuz morya
Mangalmurti shri ganraya aadhi vandu tuz morya

Shindurcharchit dhwale aang chandanuthi khulvvi rang
Baghata manas hote dang jeev jadala charani tuziya

Goritanya bhalchandra deva krupechya tu samudra
Wardvinyak karunagara awghi vighne nesi vilya

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Where All Her Children May Dwell...

2009-08-15T05:47:00.008+05:30

Let's Find Utterance...

1) Right to Information, made available in a few days
2) A PDS that does not steal food from people's plates
3) Everything we fought and have yet to fight for
4) Being in school and not on the streets
5) Rivers being cared for and not being prayed to
6) Rioting to root out communalism
7) A vote counted and not just cast
6) Awareness of duties and not just rights
8) Soldiers being given their due and farmers not driven to suicide
9) Civil Society stronger than the political class
10) A 21st Century beacon and not a Third World hag
11) 62 years of introspection but not looking back
12) India awakes to life and freedom all over again

This and more...

Happy Independence Day to every Indian out there! Jai Hind!

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* Tailpiece *

My friend Anand, is developing his own homepage on the TIFR site. Even roomie Abhishek has one. This has inspired me to have one of my own too. So I'll be working on my own website. Of course, the blog does suffice in a lot of cases, but I guess having my own site will give me more functionality to add the kind of stuff I cannot put up on my blog.
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IRS: Views from Space

2009-08-08T18:29:00.012+05:30

I am preparing a presentation on 'Remote Sensing' to be presented in Wednesday's meet in KM. The decision to have such small presentations is a welcome move; it helps people learn about space science, without having to go around scouring for good books. It becomes a kind of a preparatory lecture that stirs interest in the topic and enables members of the audience to prepare themselves for further reading into that topic. Since the age of the audience members is anything from ten to 60, it becomes a challenge to reach to the lowest denominator so that all of them feel that they have learnt something exciting. In this post, I introduce remote sensing and summarise India's advances in the field, particularly ISRO's with its IRS-series satellites.

Remote Sensing literally means making observations and collecting information of a particular object of interest, remotely, i.e., without being in contact with it. This crude-sounding 'definition' has outlived its utility and remote sensing is nothing like it was a few decades ago. But how did it all begin?

It all began when aerial surveys were carried out to assess damages due to natural calamities, from balloons fitted with cameras. Soon, the military advances during World War II, made available balloons that reached very high altitudes, from where troop positions could be monitored. The Cold War led to development of aircraft that would fly high enough to be undetectable by radars, and take photographs of civilian and military infrastructure. The launch of Sputnik 1, led to apprehensions of espionage opportunities being exploited from space, and quickly, satellites reached a stage of development, where they could be put in polar synchronous orbits and made to cover a large area of the planet in one revolution, and many such could cover the whole Earth and relay important military data in close to real time. The military advancements spawned civilian technologies too. Weather satellites and satellites that could monitor land use were put in space, that helped in development of advanced early warning systems and efficient resource management policies respectively. The US-Landsat satellites are an example in point. The progress in imaging technology is the cornerstone of remote sensing. Detectors that allow 'seeing' an object in various wavelengths helped find not only bases that housed nuclear warheads but also the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

The Palm Jumeirah, captured by IRS-P6

What about India?

The vision for India's satellite programme mandated two crucial components of space technology; to develop a national communications network and integration with the National Natural Resources Management programme. The first led to the development of the INSAT series of satellites and the second to the lesser known but oft-envied IRS series of satellites. Why envied? I did talk about this in one of my earlier posts, 'Forays into Space', and I reproduce it here.

Though the launch of the IRS-1A was a success there was a problem with the on-board camera equipment. The ISRO engineers and scientists tested the replica of the satellite on the ground in space-simulated conditions. They left the ground replica for tests and soon enough the same problem occurred in the model. They licked the problem after applying knowledge of theoretical physics learnt in college! The two IRS satellites IRS- 1A and IRS 1B have contributed immensely to the study of agricultural resources, geology, water bodies, crop patterns, soil study and oceanography. While at that time, the US LANDSAT and the French SPOT were ahead in the technology of the camera resolution, the guys at ISRO took it upon themselves to have the next two IRS satellites, IRS-1C and IRS-1D leave them far behind. They thought "Why should westerners say that the Indian Earth Observation satellites are comparable to the best in the world? We should have them saying, 'Our satellites should be comparable to the Indian ones'." And they did it. Indeed, IRS-1C and IRS 1D, at the time of their launch, were the best in the world.

IRS satellites did something else. They enabled India to become a potent military power. The programme is entirely indigenous, hence opium to a lot of speculation in international military and space circles. The military use of the IRS satellites has not been fully established, but these satellites have led to the development of India's own spy satellite, RISAT-2 launched on April 20, 2009 with an Israeli-built Synthetic Aperture Radar. The satellite is supposed to carry out defence surveillance, and especially keep an eye on India's borders. Indian agencies are already in the process of developing their own SAR technology, which means more military satellites in the coming future.

India's Remote Sensing is handled by the National Remote Sensing Centre , Hyderabad. As such, it is a very important cog in the Indian space programme. It provides geospatial solutions to organisations that need data on resources and also plays a crucial role in disaster management. It also houses training facilities at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun to train scientists and engineers in remote sensing.

India's remote sensing story has a come a far way; this can be seen from the quality of images produced by the IRS satellites. With India going to the Moon, and looking to go further into Space, new indigenous technologies in remote sensing will need to be developed, that will push the nation's capabilities.
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* Tailpiece *

I saw Jennifer Eight(1992) today, starring Uma Thurman and Andy Garcia, and was wowed by the highly engrossing crime thriller. Such movies are rare, and it is highly recommended. Watch out for John Malkovich, who delivers a stunning performance. Highly under-rated actors pack together a highly under-rated performance in a highly under-rated movie. Conrad Hall(Yes, DP par excellence) creates the perfect gloomy moods in various frames to highlight the desperation, helplessness and insecurity among the skillfully etched out characters. It is surely a not-to-be-missed movie. Those who watch it should tell others about it. It deserves a lot more than its current IMDB rating.
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Just One Boundary!

2009-08-07T21:49:00.011+05:30

The event of last week was that I flunked CT-6, but passed CT-4. I cannot really say why that happened; I studied both equally well. Perhaps the fact that I did not know ten marks worth of definitions did me in. I know I should be hanging my head in shame, because not remembering definitions is unpardonable. It won't happen again for sure. So now I am staring down a triple-barrel of CTs 5, 6 and 7 for this November. CTs 5 and 7 are slated for a November hit, and now I have to re-attempt CT-6. What I feel more miserable about is the wastage of exam fees that amount to a thousand bucks.

With Ojas' health taking a beating, I was forced to cancel the plan of having my classmates over at my place this Saturday. Some in my class have not yet seen how people live in Bombay! Of course, they are all welcome, at any time of the day, or night. We are all gearing up to host the IIT Bombay Mathematics Olympiad, which is the showpiece event of the department. It did not take place last year, which I think is downright shameful. Here, there does not seem to be much faculty support. But we are determined to make it happen; even if it is the last thing we do.

I have a Twitter page now. I usually tweet from my cell phone. I am just getting used to the concept of micro-blogging. I still have to get fully acquainted with Twitter's functionality; but I do not want to convert it into another form of online social networking, which I despise. I was just reading about how Twitter can be used to gather instant news updates about developments in space science. I'll be trying to come up with my Twitter-comfort zone in the next few weeks.

One more interesting thing to have happened is that Bankim has suggested that we make a movie about our life in IITB or on some other subject. I love movies, so I was thrilled by the idea. Maybe we can show it during the Olympiad.

The last KM meet to discuss everyone's eclipse experiences was fun, with everybody accepting that they felt envious of our Varanasi chase. The videos of others who had visited other places such as Dondaichya near Nandurbar, Patna , Itarasi and others were shown at the meet. Vini, Sirish Sir and I had a ball narrating our experiences and Vini's presentation and Kale Sir's video were the star attractions. The new committee has decided that there will be presentations every week on some topic; and I am going to present one this Wednesday, on 'Remote Sensing'. I am also planning another one on 'Cosmic Rays', but that will be later.

We have also started gearing up for the next chase; where shall we go to watch Annular Solar Eclipse, January 15, 2010? Kanyakumari or Rameswaram? When Sameer Dada asked me this, I just said KK. Why KK and not Rameswaram? Just so that I can boast about having been to the Southern-most tip of the Indian mainland and since it is one of the few places in India which sees sunrise and sunset, both over water. Also, it is a more famous tourist spot. Rameswaram is more of a temple town. There might be a problem of plenty though. Many people might turn up in KK, as it is more easily accessible. Let's see, what we decide, got to do it by mid-September though. My vote is with KK. Updates about the developments in the chase plan will be posted here.

Well, enough rambling for one post. There will be another up soon.
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* Tailpiece *

Sameer Dada sent me a link to a research paper titled 'A Markov Model of the Indus Script' that discusses the possible use of a probabilistic model involving Markov Chains to decipher the Indus Valley Civilisation script. The Indus Valley Civilisation's script has not been deciphered yet. It is not known whether it points to a highly developed language or is just a collection of symbols without linguistic underpinnings. The research was done by, including others, Hrishikesh Joglekar, a KM member.

Search the paper by typing its name in the search box on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences site.
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The Varanasi Sojourn

2009-07-25T16:09:00.016+05:30

"Banares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." ~ Mark Twain

The Call of the Ganges

This week I had one of the most memorable experiences of my life. There in the Mahanagari Express, I could hardly guess what the holy city of Banaras had in store for me over the next few days of my stay there. I had caught a very bad cold in the train and was cursing the AC vent over my Upper Berth. The journey to Varanasi was to take about 29 hours. On top of that, when we were just about 20 km from Varanasi City, the engine of our train caught fire and we were stalled outside the city for over three hours before the railway guys fetched another engine that would lug us to the city.

Sarnath

We were already behind schedule as we had to leave for Sarnath soon after breakfast. We did manage to reach our hotel, unpack and board our bus to Sarnath, but not before the soon-to-be-eclipsed Sun was high over our heads. Roasted to the last layer of our skins, we got inside the Sarnath Museum, and Suraj Sir and his teacher provided us with a wonderful description of the history of the place, explaining each detail of the carvings of the stone statuettes that were excavated at Sarnath. It was great to learn something about Buddhist culture in India, as my interest in Buddhism had been stirred by my visit to Namdroling Monastery near Madikeri, Karnataka, during MTTS-2008. We got to see the Capital of the Ashoka Pillar kept in the museum, from which our National Emblem has been adopted. The polish on the Capital has not gone even after more than 2000 years, which in itself is a testimony to Mauryan Art and Technology. Photographs inside the museum are not allowed, and I respected that. One advice to everyone who might visit it; please do not touch the panels or the figures, we need to make every effort we can to preserve this wonderful heritage.

The Sarnath Park was also great, but we had to roam in the scorching Sun, which for me took a lot of effort as I was feeling very ill, but I carried on, as the visit to the museum had already made me feel better. It was great to trace Buddha's journey to Sarnath, as explained by Suraj Sir's teacher, and though it was in Marathi, to my surprise, I could follow a lot of it. The Stupa at Sarnath presented an impressive figure, towering high above our heads. One could see a lot of tourists from many South-East Asian counties, coming here on specially arranged Buddhist sites tours. My sis has been on one too, which took her to Varanasi, Gaya and Lumbini and even Agra to watch the Taj Mahal! I slept after we came back to the hotel. Some of the others went to watch the Ganga Ghats in the evening. I was quite exhausted to go, and hence quite irritated with myself for not having had the chance to see the illuminated banks of the Ganga in the evening, which do look quite spectacular, according to my sis.

Fossilized, but eager to be Eclipsed

The next day we went to visit a tree fossil in the Fossil Park, in Sonbhadra District of Uttar Pradesh, which is quite close to the Bihar border. I cannot really say that the nine hour to-and-back journey was worth it though. Vinita, Sushrut and I spent the night with Sirish Sir in our room, testing our equipment and cameras. After all, it was a study tour and we wanted to take readings of the changes in certain parameters during an eclipse such as pressure, density, temperature, light intensity, wind velocity besides others. The data we were going to collect would be collated and added to the database of similar data collected from different places where the eclipse was visible and made available for further study. There is no conclusive explanation about why wind velocities change erratically during an eclipse and the occurrence of shadow bands. We did not manage to capture any shadow bands though; in the excitement, everyone forgot to look at the ground just before totality.

It is all about Location...

Our observation site, selected by Apte Sir, could not have been more perfect. The National Highway 2 that joins Delhi to Calcutta crosses the Ganga, and our observation spot was right on the highest point of the bridge. With the mighty Ganga flowing gently below us, the setting could not be holier. The river was not its usual self. Due to the fact that rains have been deficient in those parts, the river was only half as wide when it is in full flow and glory. There were a lot of clouds during the previous evening and there was some rain too. Everyone was glum and the gloomy atmosphere did dampen some spirits. We were still hopeful that Kashi Vishwanath would heed our prayers for a clear sky the next morning. And boy, did he!

We have Visual!!!

On July 22, even after the time of the first contact, the clouds hid the Sun, we were really disappointed that the trip was going to be washed away. But suddenly across the bridge from where we had first set up our equipment, someone spotted a ray of the rising Sun. We gathered our stuff and rushed to the other side; and the heavens began to part. Quickly putting on our solar goggles, we saw the Sun's disc being encroached upon by the Moon. The eclipse had begun. The clouds moved aside, but surrounded the Sun; we started clicking away our first shots of the disappearing Sun. Vini and I were assigned the Lux Meter that measures light intensity, and we were taking readings diligently. We missed second contact due to cloud cover, but Vini's parents did manage to see it from our hotel. But when the cloud drifted away, for a second nobody, absolutely nobody on the bridge moved or uttered a word. There was deafening silence as an eerie calm descended over the city. There was Venus high in the sky, and Jupiter was setting in the West, and Sirius began to sparkle. Then suddenly there was only screaming and howling. I went berserk, on the middle of the road, as what had just happened, sunk in. It was totality!

Totality...

The totality I witnessed is now permanently etched in my memory. I cannot imagine a more beautiful sight. It gave all of us who were on the bridge an indescribable feeling, an other-worldly state of being there, that cannot be put in words. The three minutes and four seconds did not feel that long. My mind was numb. I was not thinking of anything or anyone during that time, just marvelling at the grandeur of the event. I just did not want it to end. You get a surreal feeling as totality approaches, a feeling you cannot get anywhere else. The temperature drops rapidly, the pressure and density of the air drops, the wind direction changes abruptly. It sends cool shivers down your spine. I cannot describe how lucky I feel to have been there to see the longest eclipse of the century, in Varanasi, with the Ganga flowing under my feet. I have never screamed with joy for so long before and probably never will. For the first time, I felt contentment.

Hungry for More!

I was disappointed with the fact that my camera was the worst of the lot put in service to capture pics of the eclipse. But I was very happy to see the terrific pictures others including, Vini, Sushrut, Sirish Sir and Sachin Dada clicked. In all, it was an out-of-the-world experience for me and it has converted me into a devout eclipse chaser. Now I realise why some people spend obscene amounts of money to watch eclipses. It is an outrageous hobby to pursue, and it has me hooked! The next eclipse to be seen from India will be from its Southern Tip including Kanaykumari and Rameswaram. And I am already making plans to be there to watch it.

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* Tailpiece *

This post describes my Varanasi experience and the pics show Sarnath and the Sonbhadra Fossil Park. The previous post, Eclipsed in Varanasi, carries some of the photos of the eclipse that I clicked. I feel very sad about not having had the chance to explore the city. But I am definitely going back to Banaras. I am going to ask my classmates in IITB, Govind and Yogendra who are alumni of Banaras Hindu University, to take me back to the highly polluted but nevertheless holy Ganga. The Ghats beckon.

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Eclipsed in Varanasi

2009-07-25T09:35:00.019+05:30

Here is a slideshow of photographs of the Total Solar Eclipse on July 22, 2009, captured by me with a Nikon Coolpix S51c, in Varanasi.

A huge THANKS-A-LOT goes out to Abhishek, who lent me his camera tripod, without which the photographs of the eclipse would not have been possible.

City: Varanasi, India
Co-ordinates: 25° 15' 19" N, 83° 1' 37" E
Location: NH-2 Bridge Cross over the River Ganga
Date: 22/07/2009
Time: 0520hrs to 0735hrs
Camera: Nikon Coolpix S51c
ISO: 1600
Exposure Compensation: -2.0

Here's a link that shows the position of our observation site on Google Maps. The visit was a study tour organized by teachers of Bombay University. I'll write about the Varanasi experience in my next post.
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Warming Up to Emission Cuts...

2009-07-14T17:57:00.020+05:30

Well, the recent G-8 summit concluded in L'Aquila in Italy amidst growing realisation of its irrelevance. With many of the current Group of 8 nations no longer being able call the shots in the new world order, many are questioning the effectiveness of keeping the membership restricted to just eight, with the demand for expanding the membership to 14, to include, among others, India and China, gaining momentum. It is important for any forum to gain respectability that it takes into account India and China's concerns. At every international meet, Asia's fastest growing economies champion the cause of developing nations, so that the so-called advanced nations do not get over-bearing in their dealings with the developing world. One of the hotly debated issues at the G8 summit was that of global warming, which always is.

The fresh talks over emission cuts did little to move the nations to commit to emission cuts. As they always do, the advanced nations accused India and China of running away from their responsibility of partaking in cutting emissions. Let's look at what makes emission cuts such a contentious issue at such high level parleys, and how the losing side is always our planet.

Hot and Happening...

Unless you have been living in a cave, and have come out only because you heard of this blog and wanted to check it out, you would probably know the two buzzwords - 'global warming' and 'climate change'. Global warming causes climate change. But it is not the only thing that causes climate change. Without going into the details, I'll just link a site where you can read all about global warming. Global warming is changing weather patterns and crop cycles, melting glaciers, causing droughts and famines in some parts and excessive rainfall in others, and even snow in Dubai. But every theory has its share of naysayers, and so does global warming. Some say that global warming is not causing climate change. Scientists are busy verifying contesting arguments for climate change, such as solar activity. People are saying temperatures are decreasing rather than increasing. But global warming or not, climate change does seem real and we must make efforts to reduce pollution and emissions into the atmosphere and use cleaner technologies, for the only reason that we have to make our home a better place to live in.

The Awakening...

The pressure from the Green lobby led to the 'Kyoto Protocol' which has since been ratified by 183 countries. It talks about reduction of emissions by certain countries such as the United States, Japan, the European Union from their 1990 levels, by about 5.2% by 2012. That does not seem to be happening. In fact, emissions by the world's largest polluter, the United States, has increased. The US has not ratified Kyoto. There is no definite commitment from the developed world about reducing emissions and the Kyoto Protocol is not going to meet its objectives. The developed countries are instead pushing the developing countries to adopt cleaner technologies and reduce their emissions which are far less than the developed world in terms of per-capita emissions. Kyoto does not use per-capita emissions as a basis for reduction targets. The developing countries argue that adoption of cleaner technologies is still expensive and the cost factor and the need for economic progress outweighs the need to cut emissions as the per-capita emissions are still low. So they should be allowed to develop without the emission constraints which would otherwise hamper economic progress. They demand that the developed world should own up to the responsibility of reducing emissions, as much of the climate change being witnessed is due to the emissions caused by advanced nations over the last few decades. The developing countries had far less emissions in those years than they have today. The two sides are always at loggerheads over this issue and never seem to make any headway in negotiations, leaving planet Earth in the lurch.

Carbon Credit Escapism

The emphasis on Emissions Trading in Kyoto spawned the market of carbon credits. Companies in countries trying to limit emissions buy carbon credits from companies that have accumulated carbon credits by using cleaner technology, usually in developing countries. Companies manage to cap emissions are able to bundle the cut in emissions as carbon credits and sell them to other companies. Companies in the developed countries also sponsor clean technologies in developing countries in order to reduce their global carbon footprint. Whether the so-called clean technology has reduced emissions, is found out by checking its claim using the Clean Development Mechanism(CDM), again part of the Kyoto Protocol. Though trading in carbon credits has become a huge market, criticism rages on about its effectiveness, as the developed countries as a whole have not seen significant reduction in emissions. At the heart of the criticism is the CDM itself, as actual benefits do not seem to match benefits validated under CDM. Expansion of commercial establishments from the developed world into the developing world means no real reduction in carbon footprint as the expansion adds to emissions anyway. Many clean development projects are taken up with an eye on bottom-lines rather than the urge to reduce emissions. Adoption of cheaper, cleaner technologies in the developing world not only earns carbon credits but also helps companies to have an 'environment-friendly' image in the public eye, which in turn makes good business sense.

What the developing world can do...

Though the developing world may spar with the developed world over emissions cuts, it is in the national interest of every country to reduce emissions, if not in the planet's interest. Adoption of cleaner fuels will reduce emissions which is good for the local environment. For example, use of biogas across villages will reduce emissions due to burning of wood, and a steady supply of gas will improve cooking methods which will further reduce emissions. Lighting of streets by solar energy and indoor lighting by CFC lights or even LED lights will save thousands of watts of energy in every state. So even for developing countries it is absolutely necessary that they move towards cleaner technology and emission reductions in whichever way they can. The growth of companies selling clean technology will also create new jobs. It is necessary that the Indian government promotes use of cleaner technologies aggressively. Like the way we accuse the developed world now, we would not like to see India accused of being a major polluter by some fast developing African economies in the near future, do we?
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* Tailpiece *

The above photo, called The Blue Marble, is a famous pic of Earth taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17. It will be 40 years, since the first Apollo landing, on July 20, 2009. The entire space science establishment, the world over, has lined up a series of events, to commemorate the historic event of the 'One Giant Leap for Mankind', all this week.

I am reading a book, Bhabha and his Magnificent Obsessions in the 'Vignettes in Physics' series by Dr. G Venkatraman. I have read his Raman and His Effect, which I received as a prize in a science competition many years ago. The books in the series are very well written and I hope to complete the series.
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No Country for Tigers(contd...)

2009-07-04T22:09:00.013+05:30

In this post I continue from where I left off in No Country for Tigers. Though reports of tiger deaths were flying around, nobody really took them seriously, and lax attitude prevailed among those in the wildlife department in the Government. Critics of the tiger conservation efforts knew it was only a matter of time before we wake up to the horrifying reality of mounting tiger deaths and vanishing tigers.

The Sariska Murders

In the period when the Sariska Tiger Reserve was open in 2004-05, not a single tiger was spotted. This sent alarm bells ringing when a WWF team confirmed it. A massive search was launched for the missing tigers. But none was found. There was an outcry among conservationists, calling on the government to get its act together to save the big cats. The government at first even refused to accept the disappearance of tigers in Sariska and there seemed to be an attempt to fudge the numbers. The government then conceded that tigers were gone from Sariska, quite possibly due to poaching, with connivance of forest officials that may have been bought off for a mere few thousand rupees. Read this page for the events that unfolded during those times through the articles published in The Indian Express. IE also received an award for its investigation into the disappearance of Sariska's tigers. More than a dozen tigers vanished from Sariska in just over a year. Read this bone-chilling two-page article published in The Times of India.

So what was done?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took to the task personally and constituted a 'Tiger Task Force' to look into the tiger deaths and suggest ways to improve the situation unfolding in the tiger reserves and the task force, with noted conservationist Valmik Thapar on board, submitted a report. There was disagreement within the task force on how to handle the situation, and Valmik Thapar also wrote a piece criticising some of the recommendations of the task force. The report actually kick-started more debates than provide concrete solutions. Here is a page that gives some of the highlights of the report. It says many things that you would expect, improving surveillance, harsher punishment to poachers, more vigilance over the trade in tiger parts, involving local communities in tiger conservation and lays down the road-map for long term efforts. A Wildlife Crime Control Bureau was also set up. Tigers were also released into Sariska to give the park a new start. It may be important to note that a similar 'task force' set up in the seventies mooted the idea of 'Project Tiger'.

Any hope for our Tigers?

Every tiger needs to be monitored constantly with cellular homing devices or at least RF ID tags. This will also help tourism as forest guides will know the location of every tiger so tourists get to see tigers, and more tourists are attracted to the park. Also it will help forest officials keep a check on the health of the tigers. I read on some page that at least Rs. 200,000 are available per tiger per year under Project Tiger but almost nothing has been spent. When will this under-spending stop? And poachers should be shot at sight. Unless every remaining tiger is cared for, I see little hope for conservation efforts to taste success. All we can do is pray that India's tigers roam free and without fear in our jungles. If tigers are wiped out, it will be one of the saddest days in our country's history.

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*Tailpiece*

Just like Project Tiger, we also have Project Elephant in our country. Now how many us knew this? Read this editorial about it, published in The Times of India.

As an after-thought, if cloning takes off and becomes commonplace, tigers could be cloned and raised for their skin, fur and parts. This will take the demand away from tigers in the jungles and wipe out poaching instead of tigers and other endangered animals. I do not know if this thought is scary or reassuring.

The above two pics show tigers in Sariska taken from the park's website. Sadly, none of them can be found today.
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Not in My DNA!

2009-07-02T14:57:00.018+05:30

Now everyone who's anyone knows the grip that The Times of India has over Bombay. With the readership of the newspaper far greater than even all the other English language dailies combined, it is no surprise that the wannabes(read: DNA, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express; no wait! DO NOT read DNA, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express!) are always keen on trying to get a piece of the readership that The Times commands in Bombay. Continuing its efforts to harp about its status as the 'second largest and fastest growing newspaper in Bombay', the paper carried an amusing ad(click the image to see it enlarged) that had me roll my eyes at the desperation in the DNA camp to dethrone The Times in Bombay(as if that is ever going to happen!) Are they trying to tell us that 31% of DNA readers do not read DNA? It sure was hilarious!

But just how can The Times be dethroned? The Times of India sure isn't what it used to be. A glance at it and one can hardly say that it is living up to its 170-year old legacy of being 'The Masthead of India'. Hopefully the guys at The Hindu are planning to launch the Bombay edition of the acclaimed newspaper. We want The Hindu in Bombay, 'coz that is the only newspaper worth giving The Times a run for its money, which in turn will hopefully make it pull up its socks and work harder on the journalism front and not just live by content presentation. And I'll get to read another classy newspaper.
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* Tailpiece *

For those keen to know how DNA became the 'second largest and fastest growing newspaper in Bombay', here is my theory. At the time of its launch the newspaper was offered at a subscription rate of Rs. 199 per year. People calculated that the amount of raddi(waste paper sold for recycling) a year's supply of DNA would generate more money than Rs. 199, and so DNA was in vogue! I do not have any other explanation. Of course, The Times won the 'waste paper for free' war years earlier when they started offering Mumbai Mirror free with every copy of The Times.

Well, they also try and say that the DNA Money supplement is the second largest read financial daily(!) or something like that, in Bombay, behind The Economic Times! Can you dig that?!
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No Country for Tigers

2009-06-30T14:00:00.020+05:30

The newspapers recently celebrated the successful cloning of a buffalo by Indian scientists, which was received by some as 'playing God', as always is after every cloning attempt. Playing God or not, Indian genetic research is making great strides. More research, of course, should be in treatment of diseases and stem cell research for organ replacement than cloning buffaloes. But that could change if we look at the bleak future that holds for some of the endangered species in the country, with conservation efforts gone awry. That seems to apply more to the Panthera tigris tigris, than ever before. We might soon have to clone tigers and release them into the wild, if the government does not pull out all the stops to save the Royal Bengal Tiger.

When and why of Tiger Conservation in India

I have never seen a tiger in the wild(Abhishek has...) and I'll probably never will. Throughout India's history, tigers have always been hunted for their skin, and tiger hunting was a much loved sport among the erstwhile princes and later the British. You'll find many of the palaces in India adorned with photographs of tiger kills on their walls with the hunter proudly standing over the fallen tiger, rifle in hand. When India won freedom, around that time, there was a rapid increase in human population requiring huge forest areas to be cleared to bring more land under cultivation. This led to a decline, and indiscriminate and unplanned destruction, of forests, with tigers being relegated only to certain pockets. After hunting was banned in 1972, the greatest danger faced by tigers was poaching for their skin and hide. Trade in tiger skin is illegal, but a huge illegal market exists, especially in the West. The new threat to tigers is from China of all places, which is battling to save the South China Tiger itself. It is believed that preparations made from parts of the tiger, particularly a tiger's penis, are powerful aphrodisiacs, and the demand is swelling as China's population becomes increasingly flush with money owing to its booming economy. The need for tiger conservation was felt pretty early on, and the Government launched what was till-recently, the much acclaimed Project Tiger.

Project Tiger

Nobody really knew how many tigers roamed in India in the wild. Estimates had given comforting figures of anything from 40,000 to even the suspicious 100,000. The first ever tiger census conducted by the Govt. of India and WWF in the 60's revealed that there were only around 1800 tigers in the country. This sent alarm bells ringing. What caused more alarm was the fact that the census methods were themselves a suspect, and the number could be still lower. Though the conservation lobby was not as vocal and strong as it is today, this bolt from the blue was enough to launch efforts to save India's beloved big cat from extinction. The result was the landmark conservation initiative, Project Tiger, launched in 1973. It was seen that the tigers in India are found in a variety of habitats ranging from the marshy Sunderbans to dry deciduous forests of Central India to foothills of the Himalayas. Special regions in these ecosystems were marked and declared as 'tiger reserves'. Human activity like foraging and cattle grazing was disallowed. From nine tiger reserves during the project's inception, the number grew to 23 in 2003 and their website says the number of tigers in the reserves has increased from 268 to 1576 during the same period. With curbs on human activity, the forests in the reserves thrived and other animals in the reserve, like leopards also found some cover from poaching and habitat loss. It has also been noted that some of the lost forest land was reclaimed due to conservation efforts. The Jim Corbett National Park and Ranthambore National Park, are seen as leaders in conservation efforts and are tiger reserves under Project Tiger since 1973. Project Tiger was launched at JCNP. Today, they are among the most famous wildlife reserves in the country, drawing a healthy number of footfalls consistently due to the tiger's mystic allure. Some have not been successful in conservation efforts. Sariska is an example in point. The deaths of tigers in Sariska became the catalyst for the renewed efforts to save the tiger. More on Sariska and other failures later, but for now we'll look at the flak Project Tiger has drawn from natural historians and even constitutional agencies.

Criticism of Project Tiger

The main criticism against Project Tiger comes from conservationists that in spite of being hailed as a great conservation effort, the numbers of tigers are just about at the same levels they were during the project's inception. The census method, counting of pug-marks is based on various statistical assumptions which are under heavy fire in the light of the availability of newer methods like DNA sampling and RF tagging. Most of the tiger reserves are under-staffed with staff not being recruited for patrolling in years. This has emboldened poachers. A CAG report states that the state governments and the Centre share the expenses of conservation efforts and the state governments have been accused of not spending available funds, resulting in them being overlooked for release of more funds. This has bled the tigers and is perhaps most cruel thing to have happened to them. The reserves also do not provide corridors for tigers to move from one reserve to another for establishing territory, which results in tigers straying into human settlements near the reserves. Locals usually poison them fearing that they could be man-eaters. Project Tiger has not made efforts to inculcate sensitivity for wildlife in the minds of villagers that dwell near the reserves, or making them part of conservation efforts and also taking their help in keeping an eye out for poachers. The battle for survival for the tiger continues...

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* Tailpiece *

Well, one post is too short to express the delicate issue of tiger conservation. There is a lot more to say. When I read about tigers going missing or being found dead, I am always filled rage and anguish. This post is the first in a two-part series on tiger conservation. The next post will pick up from where I left off here.

No Country for Tigers(contd...)

Talking about tigers, can leopards be far behind? I saw this great flick, Bringing Up Baby(1938) starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. It is one of the funniest movies I've seen in recent times and do not remember when was the last time a movie made me laugh so much. It is a highly recommended flick. Discussions on IMDB seem to suggest that the word 'gay' was used as a reference to homosexuality for the first time on screen in this movie. But what they do not tell is the way in which it was uttered. The scene is simply priceless!

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Pics of the Pre-Monsoon Sky

2009-06-25T22:06:00.004+05:30

The June sky is perhaps the best of the entire year. The changing colours of the evening sky before the onset of the Monsoon has always fascinated me. This year, the delayed Monsoon has given a scare to everyone, from farmers to policy-makers, with the possibility of deficient rains seeming increasingly real, as the weeks pass. Let's hope the Monsoon gathers strength, and India receives the requisite rainfall this year.

The following is a slideshow from Photobucket with a few of the best pics of the changing sky over Bombay I took this month. I hope to add a few more soon.

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The Red Repulse

2009-06-23T15:43:00.024+05:30

“Most people who read 'The Communist Manifesto' probably have no idea that it was written by a couple of young men who had never worked a day in their lives, and who nevertheless spoke boldly in the name of 'the workers'.” ~ Thomas Sowell

India's history of internal strife marked another disturbing event a few days back in Lalgarh in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. Villagers and tribals, backed by the now banned Maoists, have taken arms against the State for alleged atrocities by local police after the police investigation into a landmine blast at Salboni, which was conceived to kill Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. The Maoists jumped to capture the wave of rage against the cops and captured many villages around Lalgarh and declared them 'liberated zones'. The Centre intervened after local cops fled from the area over-run by blood thirsty Maoists and Central and State police and paramilitary forces are trying to push back the Maoists into the Jharkhand forests and take back the villages in the district. Already parallels are being drawn between Lalgarh, and Singur and Nandigram, where the CPI(M) alleges that the Trinamool Congress sought support of the Maoists.

There are many dimensions to the problem and villagers cannot be really blamed for taking to Maoist ways. In this post I'll try and look at each one.

The Oppression

India's tribals are some of the most oppressed communities in the country. Most of them are forest dwellers and even nomads who are now trying to come into the mainstream by learning skills that could fetch them jobs in the rural economy. The forests they derive their livelihood from are fast vanishing as land comes under cultivation and development projects. Most of the tribals in the mineral rich belts of Orissa and Jharkhand are being displaced by upcoming industry that is unwilling to hire them and fend for them even after taking their land away as they do not have the skills to work in the industry. Most have to provide for themselves by working as cheap farm labour that has led to mass displacement from their native dwelling areas and has also led to mass exploitation. The benefits of schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has not trickled down to them in states with poor implementation of the scheme and not being part of their own native land's development is the cause of hatred for the government and resentment among the tribals. Such people are easily attracted to the Maoist dream of farm rights and land reforms that is promised to them by not co-operating with the State agencies and instead wage a war for class action and uprooting the rule of the Indian state. The Maoists are easily able to sell this fantasy to disenchanted tribals. The problem in West Bengal has worsened due to the record rule of the Left Front which has bred arrogance and impudence among its cadre in the hinterland that takes the people for granted and its iron grip hold over the masses has hurt the progress of many of the deprived class it claims to represent. For the Trinamool Congress, the 2011 elections in West Bengal seem the perfect stage to throw out the Left Front government, after its success in the Lok Sabha polls, and they are ready to sleep with the Maoist devil if they have to, to attain power in WB. But wise men will note by experience, such a route will only lead to strengthening of the Maoist sway and the red chickens(had to put that!) will definitely come home to roost. As you can see from the point of the paragraph, it begins with the oppression but ends on political games, leaving little room for those in whose name the battle is being fought.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

The Maoists(or the Oppressors)

The Maoists are no longer remotely concerned with Mao. They are now challenging the might of the Indian state and that too with unprecedented gaiety. The tales from the forests reveal a so called movement now morphed into a terror outfit that has made many in enemy countries proud. The source of funds: drug trade. As The Times of India reported today, there is an increasingly clear pattern of poppy cultivation found in Naxal-hit states. There is an urgent need to stop the cultivation of poppy. The farmers might be doing it out of fear or connivance, and local intelligence has to be beefed up to ensure not a single poppy seed finds roots. This will break the back of the Naxals. The second is the extortion racket run by them that is reportedly to a tune of Rs. 15 billion. The racket has to be busted so that no industrial house pays a penny. Of course, it will have to involve making arrangements for the safety of the workers. It is often difficult to distinguish innocent tribals from Maoists and this can be done only by ground-based intelligence that collects information about Naxalite activities, before making arrests. There should be a fine line between interrogation and harassment of the locals to reveal whereabouts of the Naxals. This is exactly where the problem of alienation and disillusionment begins, fomenting the Naxalite inclination among people.

The State(or again, the Major Oppressor)

The State has been the biggest culprit of the crimes committed against locals. A large part of the problem has to attributed to the country's blind eye towards its forgotten people. Tribal welfare has been neglected by most governments. A serious review of the recent Forest Rights Act and its impact has to made, and corporations have to pulled up for not rehabilitating and re-employing tribals. A lot can be said on this and the post is already too long.

How will this end?

It is important that we do not allow the Maoists to grow into a pan-Indian security threat or we could be seeing them bomb even our cities. The end as I would like to predict will come only after a lot of blood-letting on both sides. But India has survived, and India will survive. I do not see a commie wave sweeping the country. People are already too smart to see that the failed ideology will only lead to a failure of the Indian state. That is why the Left parties seem to be fast losing relevance, and in time, the Maoists will lose relevance too.

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* Tailpiece *

The above image is taken from The Hindu shows the Central and State forces attacking the People's Committee against Police Atrocities activists.

Read this article by B Raman, former head of the Counter-Terrorism Division RAW, on rediff.com titled 'How the Maoists must be countered'.

I had similar post before; Orphans of the Economy?

If you search 'Lalgarh' on Google, you will come across many sites espousing commie propaganda. What these websites don't do, is actually mobilise people to come forward to make tribals aware of their rights, make facilities available for their education and health. If the kind money spent on waging a war on India is spent in initialising development programmes and pushing for land reforms, a lot more can be achieved than can ever be possible with a war. Sadly this thought is lost on our commies.
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History, on the Rocks...

2009-06-09T09:46:00.012+05:30

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel, about a couple of travellers visiting the state of Chhattisgarh in India. The show seemed like it was produced to be a travel brochure by the Chhattisgarh government to attract more tourists to the Naxal-troubled state. But the show was extremely well made, and anyone would want to visit the state after watching it. The show had the travellers visit a megalithic site in Chhattisgarh, which was essentially a burial site. Megalithic sites have been found all over India. They point to a forgotten civilisation and culture, the mysteries of which have barely begun to unfold.

'Megalith' as the name suggests, literally means 'large stone'. The word megalithic also refers to a period in human history which is generally accepted to just follow the advent of the metal age, called the megalithic age. Some people might remember this from their school History texts. It refers to a period when people began to bury the deceased among the clan or tribe, and mark the burial spot with huge stones. The shape and sizes of the stone slabs also reflected the position in the social hierarchy of the one that passed on. For example, in some cases women were marked with smaller slabs. And as shown on the show, priests and such other high ranking men were marked with larger stones.

Perhaps the most famous example of a megalith is the Stonehenge in England. In India, some of the more important megalithic sites are the ones in South India, especially in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The problem is that archaeologists have still not figured out who were these people that erected the 'menhirs' for the deceased. We do not even know if the sites, found all over India, have been the result of the settlement of a nomadic tribe in different parts of the country over time. Some archaeologists have suggested that they were settlers that came from far beyond the Indian subcontinent, and were a Pre-Aryan civilisation. Whatever the explanation, the megalithic sites in India have garnered much interest, as archaeo-investigators begin to connect the dots and try and piece together the pieces of the puzzle, some say, are spread all over the world. In Tamil Nadu, megalithic sites can be found in the districts of Cuddalore, Kanchipuram and Vellore. Incidentally, Hyderabad city as it stands today is said to have been a megalithic hub. Maharashtra too, has its fair share of megalithic sites in the Vidarbha region.

But what is the importance of the megalithic sites besides perhaps impetus to local tourism and academic interest among archaeologists? The sites provide a key to drawing information about the migration pattern in pre-historic India. It helps us anaylise our origins and how the country was settled by advanced civilisations and how they progressed. The pottery and stone artefacts found along with the burial sites, give insight into various customs and traditions that prevailed among them which also leads us to understand how our own customs and traditions found root in ancient times. The investigations into study of their culture helps us understand how our own culture as we know it today, evolved and how it morphed into a single unified culture of India. Further investigations could also reveal why the Dravidian languages evolved separately from Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages.

It is important that we preserve the sites from destruction due to land-grab and farming. The megalithic sites in India continue to shed light on India's pre-historic and recorded history, and we have just begun to scratch the surface of what seems to be an exciting time of investigation for historians and archaeologists alike. Not to mention a few fist-fights over the Aryan Invasion Theory!

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* Tailpiece *

Probably for the first time, I did not have an appropriate label to file this post under. I finally decided to file it under 'Science and Technology' as archaeology is a science.

The photos have been taken from a Chhasttisgarh government website, and show the megalithic site of Karkabhat in the state.
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The Moon and the ISS!

2009-06-03T20:44:00.011+05:30

The International Space Station, currently on a full crew, had two apparitions over Bombay over the past three days. I took my sister's cam, a Nikon Coolpix S51, today to try and capture the ISS, and test the cam, in night sky conditions. The results were pretty satisfactory, I must say, and the pictures that came out with maximum exposure compensation(I handled the camera in the dark for the first time today, so I did not really fine tune the settings), were better than I get from my cam, a lowly Kodak C330. Below are two pics that I clicked today.

Try and spot Spica near the Moon in the pics, just above it.

The ISS appears to the lower right of the moon(the tiny bright spec just below the clouds). On zooming into the pic, you can see the familiar 'T' shape of the ISS.

The sight may not look quite nice in the pics, but the Moon peeping out from the clouds with the ISS grazing them just as it went past made a heavenly picture indeed.

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* Tailpiece *

This is an update to the post. I just found out that Spica is an eclipsing binary! It was always known to be a double star system, but now the MOST space telescope has figured it out to be an eclipsing binary. Read the article on Sky & Telescope...
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The Visionary Vainu Bappu

2009-05-26T19:21:00.013+05:30

It has been a long time since the excitement over Comet Lulin in February. The comet's visit during the International Year of Astronomy really stoked interest in Astronomy among people. There are two more exciting events this year that are surely going to push the awareness levels further up; one, the Total Solar Eclipse on July 22nd, and the suspected peaking of the Leonid Meteor Shower. The Geminids are also believed to be hitting a higher ZHR(Zenithal Hour Rate, look up the International Meteor Organization site for more) this year, and if they do, the show will be a fitting farewell to the IYA2009, in December. Indians cannot really do much during the rains though, as large parts of India will be under a cloud cover. Still we are hoping for some respite from the cloudy days during the eclipse and the Leonids. The eclipse is definitely the most hyped event here, and if you have not heard of it, you will soon.

The night sky has changed a lot since Lulin, and the famed Summer Triangle is now visible for the entire night. June to September is when astronomy lovers have to lie low, and it is really a down time for us. But the eclipse brings promise this year, of a spectacular show.

In this post, I profile a little known Indian astronomer, Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu and his contribution to the advancement of astronomy in India and the world. The inspiration comes from the fact that my friend, Vinita had her summer programme at the Vainu Bappu Observatory in Kavalur. More can be found on the net, of course, but here I try to bring the more outstanding aspects together.

Vainu Bappu earned his PhD with a thesis on spectroscopic studies of Wolf-Rayet stars from Harvard in 1952. Wolf-Rayet stars are a class of variable stars of which little is understood, even now. He returned to India, where he did pioneering work in taking astronomy in India beyond the two not-so-state-of-the-art observatories in Kodaikanal and Hyderabad. The Kodaikanal Solar Observatory is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, while the Nizamiah Observatory in Hyderabad is in ruins, as reported by the linked article from The Hindu. Bappu initiated the construction of a new observatory at Nainital, now called the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences(ARIES) since 2004. The need for a modern observatory led to the establishment of the Vainu Bappu Observatory at Kavalur in Tamil Nadu. The location was chosen in the south of the country to facilitate the study of the Southern Sky as well. The observatory acts as a laboratory of the IIA, Bangalore. The observatory has earned a name in the world for its discovery of the thin rings around Uranus(which were observed up close later by the Voyager 2 spacecraft) and atmosphere of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. The 2.3 metre telescope at the VBO, as it is fondly called, has served as an exciting research pad for young Indian astronomers. It is now the largest of its kind in Asia.

Vainu Bappu also served as president of the International Astronomical Union from 1979 to 1982. Due to his efforts, the first and only IAU assembly to be held in India was held here in 1985. He also has a comet and an asteroid named after him; the comet being the Bappu-Bok-Newkirk comet. His study on variable stars led to the establishment of the Wilson-Bappu effect which is now used to calculate luminosity of variable stars, which helps to compute inter-steller distances.

It is sad that there is little awareness among people of this brilliant son of the Indian soil. Let's hope the IYA2009 inspires and encourages more Indians to take up astronomy as a career. Anonick is already changing his department in TIFR from Theoretical Physics to Astrophysics. So I hope to see a dedicated scientist in astrophysics research a few years down the line. To supplement my own interest in astronomy, I am reading a few books on astronomy during my vacations. The last one I read was, 'Surfing through Hyperspace' by Clifford Pickover. It is an interesting read, indeed.

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* Tailpiece *

The information on Vainu Bappu's work has been taken from various sources. For more interesting reads, visit the website of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

The pic shows the Vainu Bappu Observatory, Kavalur.

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Not in Private...

2009-05-07T21:47:00.008+05:30

“The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.”
~ Todd Bodett

What are we looking at here?

Four down, one to go! This must how the overworked poll officials and security personnel be feeling now that we are going into the final phase of these protracted polls. The exercise in democracy is already turning out to be another farce with no pre-poll alliance still standing. Everybody who is anybody is up for grabs in the numbers game that is going to be played out after May 16. In the midst, it is heartening to know that there are still governments functioning somewhere. The Maharashtra government came out with two policy decisions that were progressive according to me.

Online Admissions!

The first was taking the system of admission to Junior colleges in Bombay online. This will help thousands of students as the long waits outside colleges to check notice boards and lists; for buying forms will be a thing of the past. I have gone through it, and I know what students and parents alike have to go through. This will introduce some sort of a central counselling facility that I believe is badly needed. Hope the administration takes the concept forward and popularises many industry oriented courses that few seem to know about, so as to help students make an informed choice. A cleaner system will also get rid of encounters with lousy office staff of the colleges. I remember I had many a run-ins with quite a few of them. The issue of normalisation of marks for students from the various boards is still in the courts. But as experts do agree, some system of normalisation is needed. I do not know what the big fuss is about though. I got what I wanted easily. In my days, 90 pc seemed enough. It is hard to digest even 90 pc is not good enough to get what you want nowadays.

Private punks!

Speaking about various boards, one very important noise from Mantrayala has been the talk of curbing and capping the ever-rising fees of private schools. It could not have come sooner. I read in the papers once about how the fees of some private schools had begun to pinch parents hard in the current economic downturn and many had approached the schools to spare them the rise. The article carried fees charged by some 'elite'(read: high on snob) schools. Now I do not remember the names of the schools but I do remember one of the fees quoted was Rs. 30,000 a year. Another was Rs. 150, 000 a year! Even my college, which happens to be the very consecrated IIT Bombay, does not charge that much for our programme! The justification offered by the management of such schools is that they attract very good faculty, they provide facilities like various sports activities and activities in dance and other performing arts; that they have 'a tradition of excellence'; high teacher-students ratio and some more such blah and even the horrifying 'we check the background of parents and their education so that your kid is in the company of kids from good families'. More often than not, you will find such schools having their own socially conscious societies that 'enable students to reach out to the disadvantaged'! What a baloney!

Something about my school...

For someone like me, who did not study in a private school, it seems almost laughable that parents are taken for a ride so easily and buy the logic. My school was terrific in the sense that we had everything we could ask for. Two huge football grounds. A stadium that could seat the entire school and another perhaps. Our main football ground is very well laid out and is the gem of our school. It plays host to some of the most fiercely contested matches of the MSSA. And we provide an encouraging audience of football fanatics. The school property stretches over an entire hill that houses homes for parishioners, and support staff of the school and an orphanage who's kids study with us in our school. You can do off-road cycling on that hill! Our school also has a Marathi section, but it has not been relegated to another building. Our classes are spread out pretty evenly between the Marathi section and the English section and our classes are held in adjacent rooms. Most classes are sound-proofed and so is our assembly hall. That gives class monitors some room to allow the class to 'make noise' when the teachers are out, pun intended. The primary section is almost like an art gallery where you'll find murals and paintings on the walls that take teaching from the textbooks literally to the classrooms. Did I mention the basketball courts, the huge pool or the skating rink? Our school does not segregate students on the basis of marks and has students from every economic stratum studying there. In my years there, I have not seen a single case of students being mocked at because of their family incomes. We all study and have a blast together. We never had heavy school bags to carry, we had what is known as the 'file system' where we filed our notes into their respective subject folders. That reduced the school bag's burden. Some people never brought a bag to school! Though enshrined in Christian values, the school inculcates a strong sense of nationalistic fervour too. It is an iconic place in my neighbourhood, and has some of the best staff you can have around.

All this for just Rs. 15 a year. A year. My school, though privately run, is a fully government-aided institution and that is what I am most proud of. It has given me a lot for only fifteen bucks a year. Great education and some amazing friends-for-life, to begin with. I did my bit too; topped the school in six out of the nine years I spent there.

Punch those punks!

The point of the above two paragraphs is not to advertise my school( that is why I have not named it) but to emphasise that you do not need private schools. I am a votary of free, uniform and compulsory education for all. Hence private schools do not fit in. But the number of private schools is increasing throughout the country at an alarming rate. This can partly be attributed to falling standards of education in government-run schools. There should be a central body to monitor these schools. Again, the monitoring agency could integrate itself with other school-level government programmes, like the mid-day meal programme. The national board, the CBSE is a very good model of education, but again, it has a lot that it can improve upon. But the state boards are far behind the times, and need urgent introspection and innovative overhaul. The government should be an active participant in the setting up of academic institutions and something like the Build-Operate-Transfer system used for infrastructure projects could be developed for encouraging the setting up of government schools. Even partly-aided models for schools can be looked at, where certain expenses for schools are reduced by subsidising land, water and electricity.

The last word...

Though the mushrooming of private schools cannot be reversed or stemmed, they can certainly be prevented from charging the moon. This will help students and schools alike. The schools will have to chalk out tighter management policies to face the government's curbs. This can bring in more transparency too. I had many firefights with my school authorities over the construction of many facilities! Imagine a precocious little 12-year old charging the management with embezzlement and harassment in front of the whole school! Those were the days! If I could only go back to them...

Well I leave it here, on some very fond memories from my school. Till later.

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*Tailpiece*

I saw this very cool movie today, His Girl Friday(1940) starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel. It is a laugh-a-riot and I might write a review of that movie. I have seen many Cary Grant features and after Charade(1963), with Audrey Hepburn and North by Northwest(1959), I found this the best. Also try and catch The Awful Truth(1937) and the multiple Oscar- winner, The Philadelphia Story(1940), with Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart . Can't get enough of this extremely talented actor who raised the bar with every performance.
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Lead My Ass!

2009-04-29T22:54:00.008+05:30

I was out in Dadar a couple of days back, catching up with my friends from college, who had just completed their exams in Bombay University. It felt nice to be with them again after so long. I have only had Vinita from among them for company every week because of our astronomy class. Sitting on one of the benches at Shivaji Park, we saw many 'rallies' of political parties. These were just a bunch of vehicles and bikes zipping by, carrying party workers, most of them looking like escaped convicts. I was told that this happens everyday. I do not know what they manage to achieve by this 'show of strength' as they put it. It is more of a 'see how much of a nuisance I can be even before you elect me' show that they put up. Most of the workers and bikers are unemployed youth attracted to such rallies by the carrots of money and free food, and the hope that some day they'll be someone important in the ranks and have the same show orchestrated for them. I do not know how many of them are even aware of what the duties of a Member of Parliament are. I was looking at a couple making out on the street across and not really listening to the conversation between my college mates. But when I was done with being voyeuristic, I turned to tune into what they were talking about. What caught my attention was, "This is Shivaji Park, don't say such things here..."

The argument was basically centred around which political party their sympathies lay with; and soon the Congress got kicked out. Those remaining in the fray were; the BJP, Shiv Sena, and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. I do not remember exactly what happened, but suddenly I found myself at the receiving end from their supporters. What pricked everyone was the issue of migrants into Bombay and how they have been eating up jobs of locals. Raj Thackeray was being hailed as the new saviour of Maharashtra. What saddened me was not the fact that I was being panned as someone who is not connected with ground realities of job losses, but the barrage against me was laced with all the propaganda Raj Thackeray had dished out since he had formed his outfit.

What I was trying to put forth was my belief that people such as Raj Thackeray and his ilk including the North Indian politicians, cannot be leaders in any sense of the term. There is a distinction between being the leader of a party and a leader of the Nation. One of the points was that North Indian politicians have not done anything in Bihar and they should not talk about Maharashtrians in Maharashtra and the migrants should be subservient to the natives of the state. Now even the killing of migrant labourers from Bihar in Assam was a point in example of what should be done to migrants in Maharashtra. Obviously Vini did not know the killings were carried out by ULFA which has a secessionist agenda and not by native Assamese people. Migrants provide cheap labour and by earning wages also help their kin back home come out of poverty and deprivation. Hence migration plays an important role in economic development of the country.

Now coming back to politicians, not one seems to be capable of leading anything besides their own unquenchable thirst for power. The MNS leader, Bal Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, LK Advani and Sonia Gandhi cannot be our leaders. Sharad Pawar did a lot for the development of Baramati, his constituency in Maharashtra but was nowhere to be seen when the Kosi unleashed its wrath in Bihar. The plummeting food stocks in our granaries have endangered our food security, we had to import rice and wheat of all things, the Public Distribution System is probably the most exploitative system in the world; and he has done nothing to address it. And now he wants to be the Prime Minister!

This brings us to the point of the post. Is there a leader in the politicos? A leader is not someone who will give a call to beat up migrants, but someone who will gather support and pressurise MPs from the backward regions to be more involved in opportunity creation in those regions. When Vini parroted every single line Raj Thackeray must have said in his speeches, I was amazed at how little people do to equip themselves with the correct information. I am sure she has no idea of the migration pattern in the country. This happens because there is no effort to be an informed participant in the development of the country. This creates very impressionable minds, easily fooled and made to believe words blindly. This is exactly what the netas want, and this feeds the greed for power for decades to come. Educated youth does not necessarily mean informed and discerning youth.

Maybe the migration has not affected me. But the netas are far from being the solution for my problems. Or anyone's for that matter. These are no leaders for sure. They are into votes and not into nation building. And they complain that the nation is not strong! How will it be, when they keep parochialism on the top of their agenda? With the 'Who wants to be Prime Minister?' being the most talked about election issue, one can sense where we are headed. Tomorrow Bombay votes. Let's see which bunch of rotten turnips get to suck on our lives for the next five years. We'll only know on May 16.

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Class of 2009- Farewell Pics

2009-04-28T23:48:00.005+05:30

We gave a farewell to our seniors in the Math Department on April 10, 2009. The newly elected Association office bearers, Bankim, Govind and Ashish worked hard to make it a success. Even the girls; Uma and Bakul with the Rangoli, Arundhati with her compering for the evening, Neha with her version of Nickelback's 'Rockstar' rechristened 'Class-Star' and not to forget Tanmay with his wonderful guitar riffs made the evening a memorable one for everyone to remember. If only the food had come off well...

Below is a slide-show of some of the photos from that day taken from Abhishek's and my cams...

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Erasing the Eelam

2009-04-27T22:16:00.014+05:30

"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace." ~Thomas Mann

Lanka Burning...

Apart from the ensuing General Elections in our country, what is occupying the South Asian experts is the ongoing Civil War in Sri Lanka. The war in the strife torn country has caused heavy casualties in the region occupied by the LTTE, with Tamil sympathisers crying ethnic cleansing by the Sri Lankan government in the LTTE occupied territories. It was a much delayed response by Sri Lanka to the offensives in recent times by the LTTE which included an air raid over Colombo by its 'air force'. The security of its citizens being paramount, the Rajapaksa administration gave the war cry to wipe out the Tamil resistance once and for all. The turn of events in Sri Lanka has had a direct impact on Indian polity with every Tamil Nadu politician jumping onto the 'Tamil blood' bandwagon and trying to corner some votes by appearing to be pro-Tamilian and at the same time trying not to appear pro-LTTE. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister went on a hunger strike today morning only to call it off by lunch time. The recent agitation by lawyers in Madras is still fresh in our minds as an example of how stupid some of the most educated people in our country can act for a cause not even remotely connected with our country and not be bothered about the pressing issues our own country faces. What's happening? Does what happens in Sri Lanka even matter to us? Do we not have more important things to look at?

Of domineering Lions...

The LTTE was born out of a series of Sri Lankan calisthenics after Ceylon's independence. These included not recognising voting rights of the migrant Tamilian plantation workers from India, who came there decades before, and their descendants who now stay in Sri Lanka. The other notable flop being recognising Sinhala as the only official language of the newly born nation. This was seen as alienation of the Tamil citizens and started a movement for autonomy for the Tamil dominated regions. Besides, educational and government job policies of the Lankan government caused further tensions among the Tamil youth. This has led to an international campaign for independence for the Tamil Eelam. The political struggle spawned the military movement now spear-headed by the rebel group called as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Photo Courtesy: AFP

...and Wounded Tigers

The LTTE has grown to become a sophisticated terrorist outfit with many firsts, including its own air battalion. Over the years the bloody civil war in Lanka has taken a toll on the Tamilian community and it has been no better off under the LTTE than it was under Lankan government. The LTTE has now been reduced to a spent force after the Sri Lankan Army's latest offensive against the rebels. Now it has been cornered in a small strip of land. The unilateral truce called by it has been denounced by Lanka as a ploy to regroup. The LTTE chief, V Prabhakaran's exact where-abouts are still unknown. But the post is not about the LTTE.

Should we fret?

Should our citizens be overtly worried about the humanitarian crisis in Lanka following the recapture of LTTE territories by Lankan forces? Yes, they should be worried about the humanitarian crisis. But one should not feel any special grief just because the affected people are Tamilians, or ethnic Indians who are descendants of those migrated there over 200 years ago. Working in the opposite sense, we should not be too proud of achievements of PIOs either. The destruction of property in our own country helps neither us nor the Lankan people. And that is what they are. Though they are ethnic Tamilians, Lankan Tamils are Lankans, not Indians and the Lankan government is trying to secure its own citizens against a terrorist force that is credited with introducing suicide bombings and creating the idea of child soldiers. There are more important issues in our country that we need to wake up and mobilise for, than the plight of Lankan Tamils. We never see a protest against malnutrition, do we?

But why does this happen? Probably because the idea of the Indian nation has not taken strong roots in the minds of these people. Unity comes in adversity and Tamil Nadu always had a kind of discord with the rest of the country. Remember the linguistic agitation against introduction of Hindi in the state in the sixties? Now Hindi is widely spoken and accepted across South India. Though feeling sorry for Lankan Tamils is OK, destroying property and rioting in your own country is far from acting sensible. What can be done is that people can be associated with relief work by international agencies in the war torn areas to rehabilitate the affected people. If you have seen the visuals on TV, you will know how bad a war can be. We should be very thankful that we live in a country that gives us so much, in spite of being so diverse and multi-ethnic. India pumps the second fastest growth rate in the world even though it is straddled with every possible problem you can imagine, not to mention being in the 'most dangerous neighbourhood in the world'. More needs to be done to make the idea of India strong in everyone's minds. But this can only happen when each citizen sees an equal opportunity to be a part of its progress.

The Last Word...

Tamil or not, the LTTE took the life of one of our PMs and we can break its back and unite Lanka and ensure a better future for Lankan Tamils only if we stop supporting secessionist movements in Sri Lanka. We have had bitter experiences of what separatist movements can do to a country. We do not want Lanka to disintegrate either. I hope Indian agencies are working over-time to nab Prabahakaran and extending all the support to the Lankan Army to reclaim LTTE areas and unite the country. There is no reason to suggest the future governments will turn out like the ones in the past, and Lankan Tamils can look forward to a better future in their own country. Let's hope the Lankan government works to integrate them into the Lankan society and does not repeat mistakes of the past.
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* Tailpiece *

The above AFP photo shows an LTTE trooper introducing weapons to children in the LTTE controlled areas to prepare them for war.

With the vacations kicking in, I have issued a lot of books on Astronomy from our library. Among those I am currently reading 'Modern Astrometry' by Jean Kovalevsky.
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Math 2010 Matheran Trip!

2009-04-25T07:04:00.009+05:30

After the really gruelling end-sem exams, our Math class took off to the popular hill station, Matheran, some 100 km from Bombay. Everyone wanted a release, after the end of this term, as it was quite taxing on all of us. We took the Matheran Light Railway to the top and four-time visitor, and our Class Rep, Ojas served as the perfect guide around the place and the guy also took us to a restaurant that served some amazing food. We all missed Gappu and Maji, then the class would have been complete. Below is a slide-show from Photobucket with an assortment of photos of the trip taken from Abhishek's and my cams.

Photo for the Week #11

2009-04-03T22:30:00.004+05:30

Abhishek captured this beautiful rainbow outside our Math Department in IIT Bombay, last week.

Here is another photo taken by him, with a different setting.

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Know your EVMs!

2009-04-03T21:30:00.008+05:30

With the Election scene heating up, a lot of mud-slinging and muck-raking is being resorted to by the political parties to polarize the voters in whichever way they can. Hence we have hate-speeches, staged arrests, leaked conversations, tapped phones, shady CDs promising to 'reveal all at the opportune time' and Election Commission notices that nobody seems to care about, eating newsprint space. The real issues are lost in the battle for power. It reflects the immature nature of the Indian electorate that has still to wake up to the rot in the country's electoral process, even after sixty long years of Independence. But there is something about our Elections that we all should be proud of. Elections in India are fully electronic, and the introduction of the Electronic Voting Machines has decreased instances of booth capturing considerably.

The EVMs are really easy to use. They have been designed keeping in mind the large number of illiterate voters in India. The need for the EVMs was to improve transparency in the Election process and reliability. They are very difficult to tamper with. If you want to cast two votes, you will certainly not be able to. The EVMs are smart enough to identify double key presses made in very short intervals of time. The program for the software is written in assembly language code, and the software is customised. Every EVM is thoroughly tested before being literally pressed into service. EVMs have made very important statistics available to candidates and the Election Commission, that were not possible to have in the pre-EVM era. The votes from the EVMs are displayed by pressing the Results switch on the day of counting. The Results switch comes with a seal that cannot be broken before the counting day. If it is broken before the counting day, then the EC orders re-elections in that place. There is also a facility to print out the results from a printer. One EVM can manage 64 candidates from a place. The EVMs are the VVIPs of the election days and are carried around under a tight security blanket.

The EVMs have revolutionised the way elections are held in India. In the circus that is played out every time during the polls, the EVMs bring a certain sense of sanity and order to the voters.

How to vote with Electronic Voting Machine?

1. Know how to use EVM before going to cast the vote.

2. There is blue button across the Name & Symbol of each Candidate.

3. Press the blue button next to the symbol of the candidate for whom wish to cast.

4. On pressing the button, the red light next to the button will glow and there will be a "Beep" sound to indicate that the vote has been recorded.

Note: If this does not happen, Contact the Presiding Officer at the Polling booth.

5. Now "Your vote has been registered" and it can be cast only once.

(Source: website of the Kaimur district in Bihar, http://kaimur.bih.nic.in/ )

Please vote on Election Day in your town or city!

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