Poetriture

Today, in the fury of reading everything there is to know about ISRO, I was struck by a very righteous question and subsequently got hit by the right answer. At the very least I feel that it is right. Also watching the movie “First Man” didn’t hurt either. I learned about the various missions we have undertook and how after facing extreme peril won over them, or won them over. I learned about the feelings of the entire nation after the “95%” success of Chandrayaan 2 as I too was in the flood of feelings when at 2.1 km above the surface of Luna, we lost our Vikram and Pragyan. The constant efforts to establish communications with it will continue till 21/9/2019 after which its lifespan will end. To the curious, that will be because of very little heat protection, the sun will literally fry the wiring in the instruments, rendering it obsolete. After that, as everyone says, we shall move on. We have come a long way from INCOSPAR in 1962, and since the formation of ISRO in 1969, ex...

I was once told that I should not define a teacher as, first of all, we all have an intrinsic sense of what a teacher is and secondly, more importantly, “Who are you to define a teacher, let alone your teacher?” I was told that it was demeaning and misguided, though being well intentioned. So, what I had decided to do was to describe what my teachers have been to me. They were never infallible heroes in capes, or magicians who waved their wands and put stuff into my mind. Even though there have been such people who held the post of my teacher, but were extremely unsuccessful in teaching me a single word. But I don’t consider them my teachers, anyway. They were just people, who could not teach. I might have been a tough student, to them, but I was never afraid to ask questions. I never felt silly or stupid to ask a question on fundamentals, in advanced classes, and such “teachers” never left a chance for me to not feel ashamed of myself. But that is where my teachers shined. They t...

It was just a normal morning stroll. It is the month of August as I write this, right in the center of the months of monsoon. The winds were certainly, particularly volatile that day as all the trees near my house were violently swaying. Dark clouds, all ready to pour down on my little village were curling from the winds. It had rained heavily moments ago, so the ground was wet and the road to the beach, slick. I had unwillingly woken up quite early in the morning, even before the break of dawn, with vain efforts of going back to sleep. After being couped up in the house, behind closed windows, it felt really nice to witness the rain and the subsequent wet atmosphere. My father had also got up, but unlike me he had woken up out of habit. I told him I was going to the beach for a walk. He was busy with whatever he was doing so he just smiled at me. I knew it would rain soon enough. Secretly hoping to get wet, I kept my phone at home. I wore my slippers and ventured into the strong...

Recently, I was having a discussion on this very topic with a dear friend of mine. It was on how it seemed cool to denigrate our culture, our values just for the sake of a few laughs, and that got me thinking how an empty rebellion, with no thought under it, was being flaked as it attracted scores of people behind it. Why did it feel cool to be an atheist? That answer is easy, it just means that you have at least thought about it. You are not sheep following traditions just for the sake of it. You take a scientific temperament or a template rather and apply it to the rituals and the stories told to you by your family. But this is a dangerous phenomenon, because once Occam's Razor is applied to thousands of years old history, it seems impossible to reconcile it with the mindset of today. What is so dangerous in that, you might ask? We'll get to that later, but keep that in mind that, once a framework of not just 'how to act' is replaced by 'what the world is...

आज, 68 साल से लोह पुरुष की अनुपस्थिति, के बावजूद भी उनकी उपस्थिति सच्चे भारतीयों के हृदय में अनुभव होती है. हमारा निराला भारत, जब अंग्रेज छोड़ कर गए तब ऐसी परिस्थिति में था कि मानो किसी ने गोलियों से छलनी कर दिया हो. 562 अलग रजवाड़े, सभी स्वतंत्र होना चाहते थे भारत से, और ऐसी परिस्थिति को सुधारने का बृहतकाय काम केवल एक ही पुरुष को दिया जा सकता था. एक उच्च कोटि के वकील, अति प्रभावी वक्ता, लोह सी इच्छाशक्ति रखने वाले और भारत माता के सबसे समर्पित पुत्र, श्री सरदार वल्लभभाई पटेल, को दिया गया. उन्हे निर्णायक कहा जाता हैं. उनके बारे में केवल पढ़ने से भी उनके लिए सम्मान जागता है. उनके चतुर विचारो और शीघ्र समय में निर्णय लेने की क्षमता के कारण जोधपुर के महाराजा हनवंत, मोहम्मद अली जिन्ना के पाकिस्तान में जुड़ने के ब्लैंक चेक को मना कर सके. वे समझौता करने की कला में इतने निपुण थे कि उन्होने उस राज्य के लोगो को आनेवाला सालो के अत्याचारों से बचा लिया जो पाकिस्तान आज तक पाकिस्तानी हिंदुओं के साथ करता आया है. ऐसीही निपुणता उनकी लोक प्रशासन में भी प्रदर्शित हुई जब वे जूनागढ़ को पाकिस्तान के चं...

Today, even after 68 years of absence of The Iron Man of Bharat, his presence is still felt in the hearts of true Indians. Our wonderful country, when left by the British, was in such a state, that if looked at the map of India, it would look as if someone had shot my India with a machine gun. 562 different states, were all expecting dominion status from Bharat when the British left, and the herculean task of unifying all of them was given to the only man, who could have possibly done it. It was given to an impeccable lawyer, excellent orator, iron willed statesman and the most devoted son of Bharat, Shri. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He was called the Man of Action, and the Man of Decision. Just by reading about him, we feel proud for him. His quick thinking, and decisions regarding intregration of Jodhpur, made the Maharaja Hanvant Singh to forego the "blank cheque" offer of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to secede it into Pakistan. The negotiational skills of Sardarji were so p...

Stop glorifying Ravan into a hero. He is not a hero, he is not a victim. He is not a person vs God figure. That self-important fiend was a villain, more cruel than Hitler. Raavan killed numerous innocent people just because he could, to test his might. He spilled urine into yagna kunds and killed the poojaris, he killed the yogis who never hurt a single creature. The egocentric fanatic also broke down so many temples. He raped so many girls and women, unmarried, married, widowed, everyone. He killed children in front of their parents, he killed parents in front of children. He was no hero. He was a sick and egomaniacal monster, who had become so narcissistic towards the end of his life, that he could not even see himself igniting his own funeral pyre. The usual arguments against all this is that he was a yogi, sanyasi, or whatever the word the person chooses to diefy him. He was a brilliant learner, a good astronomy student, and he did refine a few laws in Lanka and in his ini...