Bhopal Vigyan Mela

MP government organized Bhopal Vigyan Mela from February 15 to 17 at Dashhara Maidan in BHEL area. Several PSUs, Private companies and some of the state and center government departments took part in this event. The event was reported to be a huge success. It was only on the last day and that too in the evening when I got a chance to visit the place. 

The arms displayed at Defense Department’s stall seemed center of attraction for the young and eager minds. It was a huge crowd gathered there. I found an obvious reason to select this stall out of many as the volume of the crowd gathered there made me curious of what had exactly been going on there. I went straight there and tried to make sense of what the presenter had been saying. His voice was not audible at the place I stood. I tried to cruise through the crowed and with great effort reached just in front of the presenter. I listened to him very carefully. He had been explaining something about the functioning of cruise missiles. Even after listening to him for about 5 minutes, I made no progress from the earlier point. Only one thing which I could add to my understanding was that now the presenter had started to explain speed and time dimension of cruise missile. 

The students gathered there didn’t want to miss any chance to ask question. It was a kind of two way traffic. Things were highly technical and most of them beyond my mind. I was not able to make much sense of the discourse happened over there but I enjoyed it lot. The reason being the enthusiasm and curiosity students exhibited there enthralled me. 

These young and curious minds are the future of India. I have seen dreams floating in their eyes. If given adequate opportunities, they will build better India.

Winter Never Gonna Say Bye

Few days back we had bid farewell to winter. But winter is back again and yet with its full energy. It has been four or five days that morning has lost its warmth. The sun has not showed up since. Clouds have taken over the sky and have made it almost impossible for the sun to make his presence felt. The grass on the ground is desperately missing the warmth of sprinkling sunlight. Dew drops have also not formed since. The little puppies have recoiled to their cozy shelter and spending all the morning time with their mother. The grassy ground is missing their company. The grassy ground seems unhappy with clouds as they have spoiled its dream to receive ornamental decoration of dew drops. 

 The newspaperwallah have to put on his muffler again to shield him against the piercing cold breeze. He seems jealous of chaywallah. Chaywallah has doubled its stocks of things and started to come a bit early in the morning to cash the chilly morning.

That Pair of White Sports Shoes

My teacher asked me to fetch a glass of water. It was chilly winter and he had been teaching mathematics under the open sky. The sky was clear and the sun was sharp.

I took permission and ran fast toward the water-tap nearby. I ran faster than usual. That day I had come to school without uniform and wearing my white sports shoes instead of black action shoes. This was first time in my life that I had been wearing sports shoes and that of my favorite color. I was in sixth standard. I had been feeling like thousand bolt of energy in my feet. It felt like springs had got adjusted underneath my foot. That day I was happiest ever. 

I was in the school’s science fair team selected for inter-state science competition. We had to leave for Shimal that afternoon. I was the only one representing my class. 

I remember the every moment I spent with that pair of shoes. Tying-untying their lashes, cleaning and putting them at the right place I cared for them as much as I could. I enjoyed every moment spent with them. For me they were not just shoes. They were my love. My love for them seemed eternal. I never realized that they were just the produce of some material things and going to die sooner or later. 

About a year after, while playing with my friends in recess-time, I felt a kind of uneasiness in my foot and had to sit down for a while and had to untie my shoes. I really was clueless of what had been happening to my feet and shoes.

After a gap of two months I discussed the matter with mom. I discovered that  I was being betrayed by own feet. There was something wrong with them. They had been growing faster. I got angry at my feet, but I felt helpless. May be it was out of jealousy that my feet grew up. May be they could not accept the kind of relationship I had with my shoes.

The Mother Nature- we are Her Creation

Why should I believe in such a thing which is beyond the perception of my senses? Without doubt, there are things which our senses cannot feel but they still exist. 

God is also put in such category. It is believed that no normal human being is capable to feel the existence of the God. It is the great sages who have direct access to God and through them a normal human being can get into touch with Him. Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ are two such living examples. They were God’s representatives on this earth bestowed with the duty to make people aware of the holy message of the God. 

God and religion have been the hotly debatable topics since ancient time. They have been the matter of prove and disprove. They have received many interpretations from across the varied field of study. Still no consensus has been arrived. 

The greatest physicist of our time Stephen Hawkins has hypothesized that the universe is governed by the law of nature not by the will of God. In his opinion God has no direct and indirect influence on these laws of nature hence our life is free from His jurisdictions. He presumes that if God exists then certainly he be out of this universe which makes him totally irrelevant for us. Galileo Galilee and Charles Darwin were the first scientists who with their scientific methods challenged the existence of God.

All the points mentioned above makes it very difficult for anyone to arrive at an agreeable conclusion. 

Still there is a point where religion and science seems to be agreed upon. In many religion of the world nature is worshiped and given paramount importance. Similar is the case with science. Science has enormous respect for the laws of nature. And it bestows its full faith in them.  

The question “Who created this universe” is still going to remain debatable. Science and religion both have no complete and convincing answer to this question. But science definitely has beautifully explained the phenomenon of origin of living being. In the book “”The Origin of Species” Darwin explains that how nature and the living beings are connected to each other. 

So my point is that instead of worshiping the God and religion, why don’t we worship the Mother Nature?  After all we are Her creation.  We should pay much attention to understand the Mother Nature and try live life accordingly. This line of thought will diminish all the differences created by religions and bring all the human being closer.

Festival of Love and Cross-Culture Sharing

There are some certain things related to valentine’s day that we all agree upon. First, this is the festival of love. Second, it is western orient. Third, this western festival of love is debatable matter in the east.  Certainly there should be no rules-book for how a festival should be celebrated irrespective of its regional orientation. For me it carries equal values whether you celebrate it with colors and flowers or with card and gifts. But economic affordability of these methods of celebration and their implications for the poor strata of society pushes me to change my opinion toward the thinking that cultures certainly have superiority and inferiority ingredients. 

The festival of love is celebrated in India too but with different name called Vasant Panchmi. The spirit of the festival is the same as is of valentine’s day but methods of celebration differs adequately. Still we are mastering the art of celebrating velentine’s day. Every year enthusiasm among youth toward this festival reaches to a new height. On the other hand Vasant panchami as a festival of love is losing its feet not only among the youth but also among the elderly people. 

Culture is learned. Human instinct doesn’t recognize it. It is transmitted from generation to generation.  Before the industrialization and westernization cross -culture learning was very slow. But with the process of industrialization the field of transportation and communication changed forever. Invention of Motor vehicle, steam engine and airplane has taken the human civilization to the next level. Physical distance has shrunk. With the invention of printing press, radio, television and internet the world has reduced to a global village. Industrial-age has given way to information-age. In the information-age cross-cultural learning has revolutionized.