Fear of misplaced bookmarks...

There is a fear of removal of the bookmark from the currently read book by the lil' one. To tide over this, I have to remember the page number when I close the book. At times, I used to remember and at times I used to forget.

Now I have started a new practice of associating the page with the roll numbers of my academic friends. In todays' world its difficult maintaining contact but I found this unique way of connecting with old pals atleast in my thoughts. Thats a different story that I have started dialing new numbers after decades; much to the pleasant surprise of the other party.   

Double movie...

It was "First Man" for Sambhab and myself. For the other two it was "Badhai Ho".

Piece from Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Throughout history, most gods were believed to enjoy not omnipotence but rather specific super-abilities such as the ability to design and create living beings; to transform their own bodies; to control the environment and the weather; to read minds and to communicate at a distance; to travel at very high speeds; and ofcourse to escape death and live indefinitely.  Humans are in the business of acquiring all these abilities, and then some. Certain traditional abilities that were considered divine for many millennia have today become so common place that we hardly think about them. The average person now moves and communicates across distances more than the Greek, Hindu or African gods of old.

From Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Samis...

a. Average temperature being -40°C around. At night, the temperature could fall 50°C in just 30 mts.

b. Snow all around; most part being soft snow which makes walking through the same very difficult. At some points,  the snow could be of chest height of the common man.

d. Walking without any load could burn as high as 1000 calories in a hour.

e. The land is full of rivers, tributaries and rivulets. Even the next step cannot be predicted whether it would land in water or not.

f. The only animal found in plenty is reindeer; they remain in herds of hundreds.

g. The stay is usually in snow houses called lavvu. This is based on a frame created through birch tree branches. It is conical in design with a place for fire at the centre.

h. There is always a fear of wold animals namely wolverine and lynx.

i. Lichens are consumed by locals and guests. This contains 80% carbohydrates and is the staple diet of reindeers and humans.

j. The other favourite food are Artic game birds like ptarmigan. These love birch twigs and simple hand made wire traps are placed to catch them.

k. The technique for making fire there has not changed for thousand of years. Birch bark is sheared into as thin strips and then struck through shapely rocks. Once these strips catch fire, leaves, twigs and wood ate placed on it.

So much for being a Sami, a tribe which has been the same, seen the same environment and lived the same life for the past 10000 years. To visit them you require either Swedish or Finnish visa.

Anyone interested to say hello to them?

Book Review : : Eleventh Hour by Zaidi Hussain

Amazing book; absolutely un-put-down-able till one completes the same. The thrill is there in every page and every chapter. The same can become a great movie. The author has taken meticulous care of abridging true facts. His command over the Indian system and administration is appreciation-worthy.

Life goes a full Circle!

As I enter the movie hall to be with my son for seeing Jurassic World, my mind goes 25 years back when my father has taken me to show Jurassic Park at Deepak Talkies, Rourkela.

Life goes a full Circle!

Learnings from a driver @ Darjeeling

It would have been a normal drive of 3 hours in a SUV had it not been for the driver who kept 4 supposedly educated, professionals from metros engaged with his conversations. The verbal association included wise sayings, sharing of elite associations, life-changing experiences gained through travails and some unique perspectives of life in general and hill-life in particular. Some pearls of wisdom, some known, some fundamental, yet simple were thrown in. Each one of them demanding a public mention as an acknowledgement of the wisdom and a deep sense of my personal regards for the driver named Raj Rai (atleast that's what he called himself). Some excerpts:

a. A colleague casually mentioned: "Your Darjeeling is clean and good". Pat came the interjection that the town was as much his as much of all others. It was one Gandhi's nation, he commented.

We were all taken aback but we had some more coming up.

b. Its common to pass through clouds as one meanders through to the hilly roads. These clouds which one sees, possess some uniqueness. Though it might seem gloomy with no imminent chance of rain at the spot, it shall cause rainfall sonewhere else.

c. A gang of seemingly worshippers passed us ganged up in mini buses. From the signs we could make out that they were headed towards Ghum monastery. We were told that this is the typical practice in the hills to join together in a group prayer before the onstart of agriculture.

That was all right till the time we heard the next sentence coming in. In hills, people just do not pray for themselves but they pray for the welfare of all around. This was the primary reason of the colourful masts on the roofs of many houses.

d. A question was posed to him regarding ghosts (actually in Hindi, bhoot). The dimensions he gave to this otherwise ordinary question was unique:

1. Bhoot in Hindi also refers to past and hence they have nothing to with the present and
2. Nowadays, with the age being kal-yug, there are more ghosts of live people one has to actually bother about & deal with and hence these poor spirits do not get the attention.

e. All teas coming from Darjeeling are the same since they grow with the same sunlight, get the same air, are placed under the same temperature and they draw nutrients from the same soil. Hence the output (first leaves,  quality of buds et al) is almost similar. It is the marketing which decides the range of rates that are visible in the market.

f. Films are deceptive: theses  dialogue came when the point of Darjeeling being a film location was brought up. Basis his experience of handling (read driving from airport and local touring) actors, it came out that he saw them being mere puppets in the hands of directors and producers though onscreen we get to see them as demigods.  This revelation shook him so much that he decided not to see any movies.

g. By virtue of his job,  he gets to see and handle tourists from all across the country. Regarding tourism of Darjeeling,  he had one proud comment: I have seen people coming here but I have never seen people of Darjeeling going anywhere. Profund!

All these during the 3 hours journey from Darjeeling to Bagdogra. Have always believed that sources of learning / wisdom can be anyone and everywhere; probably today, he was destined to be the spark for me.

Billionaires galore...

Was going through an old issue of ET Panache (dated 18-Apr. 2018) today. It spoke of an article on billionaires (by USD) terms; the article pegged the figure at 2208. The article did not mention the date of the statistics but what kept me wondering was the following:

a. Wow, there is so much money around with so many guys and I do not know more than 10 of them. Infact the list of my acquaintances (not relatives) whom I admire and are famous are not billionaires.

b. If someone could advice atleast 10% of them to keep a billion and donate the rest to their respective governments. I know that poverty and issues related to human kinds are not country specific.

Milestone day for me...

Courtsey my Central Office posting and the well wishes & support of seniors and colleagues, I managed to have an audience of 1 hr 20 mts with the MD, DMD, one President, one GE and the Strategic Head of the bank.

It may seem normal to many but for a lad of Rourkela with modest beginnings, it is a milestone.

Today in history @ 12 Mar

Famous birthdays

a. German physicist Gustav Kirchoff (b. 1824). contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He coined the term black-body radiation in 1862, and at least two different sets of concepts are named "Kirchhoff's laws" after him. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after him and his colleague, Robert Bunsen.

b. Famous Indian playback singer Shreya Ghoshal (b. 1984). She has received four National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards including five for Best Female Playback Singer, nine Filmfare Awards South, three Kerala State Film Awards, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and many other awards. 

c. Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat Gianni Agnelli (b. 1921). As the head of Fiat, he controlled 4.4% of Italy's GDP, 3.1% of its industrial workforce and 16.5% of its industrial investment in research. He was the richest man in modern Italian history.

d.  Russian, Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology Vladimir Vernadsky (b. 1863).

e.  First Chief Minister of Maharashtra after the division of Bombay State and the fifth Deputy Prime Minister of India Yashwantrao Chavan (b. 1913). He advocated social democracy in his speeches and articles and was instrumental in establishing co-operatives in Maharashtra for the betterment of the farmers.

Famous death anniversaries

a. German-born diarist Anne Frank (d. 15-Feb. or 15-Mar 1945 aged 15). One of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis; English: The Secret Annex), in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's most widely known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

b. American-born violinist and conductor Menuhin Yehudi (d. 1999). He had one of the longest and most distinguished careers of any violinist of the 20th century. Throughout the last twenty years of his life, Yehudi Menuhin continued to engage in every aspect of musical work. As a performer, a conductor, a teacher, and a spokesperson, he spent his seventies and eighties as one of the most active musicians in the world. He was a constant contributor to religious, social, and environmental organizations throughout the world.  

c. German industrialist, engineer and inventor Robert Bosch (d. 1952). He is the founder of Robert Bosch GmbH (world's largest supplier of automotive components measured by 2011 revenues).

d. American entrepreneur and engineer George Westinghouse Jr. (d. 1914).  He invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, gaining his first patent at the age of 19. 

e. Serbian American physicist and physical chemist Mihajlo Pupin (d. 1935). is best known for his numerous patents, including a means of greatly extending the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils (of wire) at predetermined intervals along the transmitting wire (known as "pupinization"). Pupin was a founding member of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) on 3 March 1915, which later became NASA.[5] In 1924, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography.

f. Swiss mathematician Johann Jakob Balmer (d. 1898). He discovered a formula basic to the development of atomic theory. In 1885 Balmer announced a simple formula representing the wavelengths of the spectral lines of hydrogen - the Balmer series.

Famous events of the day

a. 1894 Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

b. 2011 A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.

St. Andrew's Church, Bandra @ 18-Feb. 2018

Takes of a different kind @ from the land of the dead!

It was a different experience altogether today. The trip was to St. Andrews Church at Bandra. What struck me more than the features of the 402 year old holy place was the graveyard attached to it.

Flowers had a significance & importance different from what we normally know them for. All types of collection were there; there were silly handmade nosegays, elaborate bouquets, the large wreaths, there were garlands and there were single roses too all around the place. Probably because of Sunday, the quantities were large. Some of them were accompanied by candles (some were white and some were of red wax, some burning and some burnt).

There was an eerie silence in the air. The serenity disturbed only by the visit by the near-and-dear ones. Some strolled to the place where their acquaintances were buried and went back after making a silent prayers, placing flower(s), lighting a candle (or a combination of these activities) and taking a bow. While some others chose to stroll through the entire open space like us.

The remembrances section had its own importance. Imagine thousands of names of those who have long departed have nothing to claim on this Earth but for a 1 ½ ft by 3 ft. space with their names engraved / carved out on them. Some seemed to be neglected (read: not many remembered them) as was evident from the quality of their etchings while some seemed to have been remembered regularly who also took the pains of taking the pains of ensuring the names are clearly visible by any onlooker.

There was a family section (reserved in advance by the family), a normal section and there was one which had infants. With passage of time, the space is getting limited with each passing day. Interspersed among them were the graves of some of the ex-priests of the same Church. Needless to say, because of the 4 centuries of age, we had death days well spread throughout the last few centuries.

Felt bad trampling on the graves with names written on them; but could not help despite the best of our abilities because of the proximities of the same. Even the entrance area to the Church is also cluttered with many a names.

Today in history @ 14 Feb

Famous birthdays

a. Japanese inventor and industrialist Sakichi Toyoda (b. 1867). The son of a poor carpenter, Toyoda is referred to as the "King of Japanese Inventors". He invented numerous weaving devices. His most famous invention was the automatic power loom in which he implemented the principle of Jidoka (autonomous automation). The principle of Jidoka, which means that the machine stops itself when a problem occurs, became later a part of the Toyota Production System.

He is the founder of Toyota Industries Corporation.

b. Indian film actress Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi, b. 1933). She is also considered to be one of the most beautiful actresses to have worked in the industry, and is highly regarded as "The Venus of Indian Cinema" and "The Beauty with Tragedy”.

c. Leading industrialist Sir Biren Mookherjee (b. 1899). He established the steel making facilities at IISCO, Burnpur 

d. American businessman, author, politician, and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg (b. 1942). Bloomberg is the founder, CEO, and owner of Bloomberg L.P., a global financial services, mass media, and software company that bears his name, and is notable for its Bloomberg Terminal, a computer software system providing financial data widely used in the global financial services industry. 

e. British businessman Sir Martin Stuart Sorrell (b. 1945). He is the CEO of WPP.

f. American economist Eugene Fama (b. 1939). He is widely recognized as the "father of modern finance” and is best known for his empirical work on portfolio theory, asset pricing and the ‘Efficient Market hypothesis’. He is the 2013 Nobel laureate in economic sciences.

g. German born mathematician Edmund Landau (b. 1877). He worked in the fields of number theory and complex analysis. Landau studied mathematics at the University of Berlin, receiving his doctorate in 1899 (aged 22) and his habilitation (the post-doctoral qualification required in German universities) in 1901 (aged 24). His doctoral thesis was 14 pages long.

h. American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes (b. 1819). He co-invented the QWERTY keyboard

Famous death anniversaries

a. British explorer, navigator, cartographer James Cook (d. 1779). Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

b. English author and one of the most widely-read humorists of the 20th century Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (d. 1975). He wrote more than 90 books and more than 20 film scripts and collaborated on more than 30 plays and musical comedies.

c. Italian-American mobster Vito "Don Vitone" Genovese (d. 1969). He was known as Boss of all Bosses from 1957 to 1959 when he ruled one of the most powerful, richest and dangerous criminal organizations in the world and maintained power and influence over other crime families in America.

The Genovese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the Mafia (or Cosa Nostra). The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime. 

d. British evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (d. 1975). He was a proponent of natural selection. He was secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund and the first President of the British Humanist Association.

e. Leading American ornithologist James Bond (d. 1989). He was an expert on the birds of the Caribbean. His name was appropriated by writer Ian Fleming for his fictional British spy of the same name.

f. American physicist and radio engineer Karl Guthe Jansky (d. 1950). He first discovered radio waves emanating from the Milky Way in August 1931. He is considered one of the founding figures of radio astronomy.

g. British machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor Henry Maudslay (d. 1831). He invented machines of fundamental importance to the Industrial Revolution; of these the metal lathe is perhaps the most outstanding. He also invented methods for printing calico cloth and for desalting seawater for ships’ boilers, and he perfected a measuring machine that was accurate to 0.0001 inch. He was the first to realize the critical importance in a machine shop of accurate plane surfaces for guiding the tools; he produced for his workmen standard planes so smooth that they adhered when placed atop each other and could be separated only by sliding. 

Famous events

a. 1924 Thomas J. Watson renames the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) as International Business Machines (IBM).

b. The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) was established in 1949.

c. 1989 Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his publishers due to his novel "Satanic Verses". A bounty was also place on his head.

d. Youtube founded in 2005.