Retrospection

The past year was enlightening. It brought with it some joy, lots of learning, and still some unanswered questions. Joy came in small packets and made the tough times much bearable. Each packet of joy never propelled the self out of reality; in fact it made the grounding to reality even stronger. The learning sunk in better with these kind blessings. It was the period of most learning till date. Learning, not of textual or official knowledge, but of life and living on a level never felt before. Age and time have got to do something with this perhaps. Experience can never be belittled and youth is not always the best answer to every problem. Faith in simplicity and honesty became stronger. Simplicity is beautiful. Pretention became a hated quality. Human values were the buzz word in every sphere of living. There are things one can’t possibly do in one’s life – that realization lifted much burden. Acceptance soothed agitated minds. The journey became more pleasurable when the destination was not the prime focus. Competition turned inwards and now the self competes with the self. Still, there are questions that are yet to be answered, but the wait is worth its weight in gold – the answers will certainly be beautiful.

Morning Cuppa

All my life I have been drinking this beverage and little did I know that I had not been drinking the real one! I was under an illusion, as are the millions of “Tea” drinkers in India, that what we drink as tea is the real tea that is famous all over the world. But I was sadly mistaken! What we have been drinking is nothing but a low-quality product of the real tea – called CTC tea – and this actually has little value in the international market. Only in India and some of the south Asian countries is CTC tea drank in such volumes and relished too. I have lived many years near the tea gardens of Darjeeling – my home – yet the real tea did not reach us. Perhaps the value and price of this real tea prevented that.

However, we Indians have taken CTC tea to new heights and anything else in its place would not suit our taste buds. The black grainy CTC tea is the real tea for us. Its strong flavour and colour stimulates our senses. We are not bothered if this tea has any medicinal value at all (the orthodox and the green teas have loads of antioxidants and are consumed for this property both in Europe and other parts of Asia). To us the strong frothy concoction of over-boiled CTC tea in water, milk and sugar is what makes our day. Many of my friends say that a thorough shaking of this mixture adds more flavour to the tea – the nearby tea vendor pouring tea from one glass to the other in a circus-like routine is designed to impart this quality to our tea!

But with more information available to the Indian consumer and also with increasing purchasing power, we Indians have started drinking the real tea today – not the CTC tea – though in a small scale. The tea industry does have the potential to be big in India given the huge cultural significance and medicinal value of tea. What is needed is foresight and effort to make the Indian consumer develop a taste for the real tea. The low-priced CTC will continue to survive of course!

Simple Solutions

A visiting minister from a foreign country was quizzed on how his country had managed to develop faster than India. His reply – we are buddhus (of lesser intelligence), so we have simple solutions to complex problems whereas India is a country of intellectuals and they have complex solutions for even simple problems! This should be an eye-opener for us and perhaps sums up why we have managed to develop so slowly in spite of our vast intellectual resources – we think of complex solutions to all our problems which could have been solved with much simpler solutions. The future lies in simplicity – it really does. There is an old saying that you need to look at complex tasks as a collection of simple tasks and try accomplishing each as you would do to a single simple task. You will realize that the complex task certainly becomes simple. But going to hair-splitting lengths to analyse and finally complicate matters will certainly have no benefit. We may get theoretical answers to everything on earth but will not be able to accomplish any task efficiently and on time. The motto for us is clear – think simple and act simple and keep our complicating brains out of the way, at least till the time we become a developed nation. Every one of us needs to follow this and realize that simplicity does not mean ignorance – it is simply a better way to do things.

Taare Zameen Par

After a long time I watched a Hindi movie that had real substance and could stand out just on the strength of the story it told. Taare Zameen Par is a special movie. This is also because its theme says “Every child is special.” The movie portrays the life of a young, hapless boy pressured by his parents and teachers to do things that are not just possible through his medical condition of dyslexia. His parents are not willing to accept that he is special – both in terms of his inherent creativity and medical condition. They are not willing to move beyond their accusation that their son is a stubborn fool and compare him to his elder, brilliant brother. No one cares to understand the boy – everyone wants him to behave and perform the only way they are conditioned to see. The boy is lost and is on the verge of a breakdown when a teacher arrives in his boarding school where his parents have dumped him for “improvement”. This teacher, who himself suffered from the same medical condition when he was young, understands the boy’s condition and his need for help. Using the boy’s talent for painting, the teacher brings into him the lost self-confidence, the happiness of his childhood and the love of his parents, friends and teachers. This movie will hopefully open the eyes of millions of parents in India, who are subconsciously trying to fulfill their own unfulfilled ambitions through their children. In the rat race for a myopic academic excellence, children and their dreams are crushed each day on the very portals of the school they have entered to become masters of their destiny. Everyone wants a class topper – an outstanding academic performer. Sadly, most fail to realise that there are other infinite possibilities for the child to blossom into. The cut-throat competition is killing the dreams of children in modern India. Schools have become mere factories producing mechanical, one-dimensional zombies rather than creative people. Parents have stopped thinking beyond their children becoming an engineer or a doctor. Anything else is considered a failure.

Target

I always wondered what had happened to my favourite magazine of my school days. It was a monthly children’s magazine called Target. Every month I waited for its arrival through post, wrapped in a brown envelope, bringing within its magical pages hours of fun reading. The characters of this Target world were real to me then – Moochwala, Dee Kay, Gardhab Das, and many more. The comic strips were the ones to die for. It was also fun reading what children of my age of those times felt about life and living. The information it provided to us was great at a time when TV didn’t rule our lives. There was something very special about that magazine that attracted children of those times. It really did bring out the creative instincts in me – trying to pen a good poem to be published in it or write a great story that would be appreciated by all. Though these efforts didn’t turn into reality, I became fond of reading and writing – things that became a cherished part of my life later. I was a regular subscriber to it for many years – it probably sold more through subscription than through book/magazine stores. I recently learnt that its publishers (the Living Media group) stopped its publication to start a new trendy magazine called Teens Today, which did not evoke much enthusiasm from the teenagers. Perhaps it proved that old is always gold.

Nature in India

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) India is launching its first India-specific website Nature India soon. This follows the launch of a similar Nature China website last year. NPG is the scientific publishing arm of Macmillan Publishers with its headquarters in London, UK. It publishes its flagship journal Nature, the world’s highest cited weekly journal, which was started in 1869. NPG also publishes other prestigious Nature journals and reviews. Although the primary audience is the scientific community, the general public also read Nature, which has published some of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in modern history such as the molecular structure of DNA by Watson and Crick and the first-ever cloning of a mammal (Dolly the sheep).

The launch of Nature India is an important landmark in the growth of science and technology in India. It also heralds a new medium for science communication. Not long ago, India did face a slowdown in science publication. Indian journals found it difficult to survive in the face of dwindling readership and rising publishing costs. But today science publication is again gaining a foothold in India. Journals like Current Science have managed to forge a niche market for itself among the Indian scientific community. The readership has increased with thousands of scientists and science institutions taking an active interest in science communication. Today newer forms of communication like the television and the Internet have brought in a new dimension as to how science can be communicated to the people. The number of people accessing the Internet for information related to science is multiplying. Nature India would cater to millions of science enthusiasts in India as it plans to include news, events, jobs, research highlights and also access to some premium content from Nature journals. We await this new development with great enthusiasm.

http://www.nature.com/nindia/marketing/index.html

Traffic in Bangalore

Travelling on the roads in Bangalore has become a harrowing experience in the past few years. The distance one covered in thirty minutes ten years ago takes more than an hour today. Traffic snarls at each crossing destroy whatever enthusiasm is left after a hard working day in the office for lakhs of employees. People in Bangalore spend 10–12% of their working hours in travelling, which I feel is inhuman. And the problem isn’t getting resolved very soon – in fact it is getting worse each passing day. Thousands of four- and two-wheeler vehicles are registered at the road transport office each day. The authorities feel this number will multiply in the coming months and years with cheaper cars coming to the market and the purchasing power of the people rising rapidly. The already overcrowded roads will come to a complete stand still then. The present conditions of the roads are simply appalling and don’t make the residents of Bangalore with its Silicon Valley tag proud. Pot holes spring up on the roads after every shower of rain. And when it rains, the roads simply turn into public drains. Its a nightmare travelling in the rain – you may not know if the harmless-appearing puddle of water is a deep, open drain.

In the old days it was called the pensioner’s paradise with its quaint tree-lined roads and peaceful residential areas. Its cool climate invited many a retired person to settle here. Within a decade things have changed. There is a huge population explosion due to the economic boom mostly from IT and ITES industries and the public infrastructure has deteriorated rapidly, unable to keep pace with the rapid population growth. I have seen two-way roads being changed to one-way, then back to two-way, and again to one-way in the opposite direction of the earlier one-way! With no space on the road it is not uncommon to find two-wheelers plying on the pavements that are meant for pedestrians. The authorities are at loss of ideas. Traffic tempers are at the highest and accidents very common. The Metro railway, which promises to alleviate the traffic woes, is taking its own sweet time to arrive and may not be running for few more years. Its slow construction in the areas over the present roads may even add to the traffic chaos.

People Care

There is hope for the world. Poverty, illiteracy and lack of health facilities cripple the people living in the remote hilly areas of Darjeeling district. Yet, not all of us have forgotten our lesser-privileged brethren. A group of determined people are making a resolute attempt to improve the lives of poor people in the hills. This ray of hope in the darkness of selfishness and indifference lifts my heart with joy every time I hear of the work they are doing. They need our support and well wishes. Every effort made by them is worth its weight in gold.

Their work can be read at MARG.

A Walk in the Clouds

After a long time I felt that extra craving for my home back in Darjeeling. I would love to enjoy the rain and clouds of this enchanting place again.

This wonderful slide show with the hill’s breath-taking beauty captured on camera accompanied by a wonderful flute background score makes me yearn for the hills much more.

http://www.prafulrao.com/slideshow/show/Landscape

I am packing up for that long-awaited trip back home!

The Miniature Earth

Miniature Earth …