Indian Rail - A Nostalgia

I was reading this page when my mind went back in the memory lane about my own observations attached to Indian railways. If observed, the Indian railway stations tell a lot about the history and cultures of the place. Many of the Indian rail stations still have the old buildings, truly the historical monuments.

I will not write much here, will just give some pictures to refresh your own nostalgic memories with Indian railways.

Howrah Junction - Bengali, colonial.

The Charbag station of Lucknow is architecture similar to a palace of a Nawab.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai, is built in Gothic-Saracenic style

The 75 years old Thiruvanathapuram station is a pleasant combination of light and steel gray.

Thivim Railway Station (Near Goa)


Shimla Kalka Toy Train



Darjeeling Toy Train






Two kilometers from Darjeeling is the town of Ghoom which is the highest railway station in the world. It also has a monastery and is definitely worth a visit to all those visiting Darjeeling.

S T A R

Among the stars we see in the sky, many of them do not exist any more. Reason: the stars are several thousands of light years away from the earth i.e. it takes several thousands of years for the light from stars to reach the earth. By this time many of those stars are merged to other stars or become cold (lose energy to shine) or simply destroyed.

Likewise, we see many human stars around us. Some star performers in the office, star players, star students, writers, singers or stars in any other field. We got to see whether the star in them actually exists today or is it the light of stardom they had few years back? In many cases they are the dead stars. Out of ignorance, we still consider (or worship?) them as stars.

So the next time when you see a star, think, “Does his/her star-quality actually exist today?”

PS: This is not my original thought. I had read it somewhere long time back. Some incident reminded me of this and I thought of sharing it with you all.

Balance

Randomness is the nature of the nature. The nature is balanced by random forces in all the directions. Consider a closed empty box in your room with nothing but air in it. It is kept on your floor. Suddenly if it starts moving up in the space, how would you feel? :-)
We know that the air molecules in the box move randomly in all possible directions and hence neutralize each other’s forces. But what if all the molecules get motivated and become progressive and all start moving up. They will lift the box. Is not it? It will destroy the physical stability of the universe. Thankfully, nature has balanced things by randomness.

Similarly we always complain about various things not happening the way we think they should. We want everything to be progressive, righteous, correct, ethical etc (definition of these terms vary from person to person). Like the left parties and BJP should let the govt. go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, the leftists should allow economic reforms and privatization, there should be no corruption etcetera etcetera. But will not USA start taking us as lightly as it takes to UK if we agree to all their suggestions. I do not know whether this nuclear deal will get through or not, but the domestic opposition has clearly told USA that it is not a charity which we will be glad to accept. Mr. Bush had made it look like a charity that he was offering. But the Indian opposition has clarified that it is a DEAL. Not surprisingly, the US media doesn’t talk about it these days. They are embarrassed.

The Vajpayee govt had a separate disinvestment ministry (first time in our history) headed by Mr. Arun Shoury, whose only job was to privatize the state owned companies. But should it be done mindlessly? Remember at what price did they sell BALCO to the Sterlite group? It was much less than the fair valuation. Also is privatization the only solution for progress? What if the private companies start minting money from the public? Remember Reliance Energy (which supplies power in Mumbai) suddenly increased domestic power cost by 240% a year back? Should not monopolies be checked?

So I believe a strong opposition is the backbone of a strong democracy. Without opposition, countries will become like Pakistan. There should be forces in all the directions to balance the things. That’s democratic way. Sure, democracy runs slower but chances of blunder are very less here.

Regarding corruption, everybody is not corrupt. Also, everybody is not corrupt every time. So it’s balanced too. :-)

भूख और सोच

सोचकर देखिये, सोच और भूख मैं क्या कोई संबंध है? मुझे लगता है, है, एक अप्रत्यक्ष किन्तु गहरा संबंध है. मैंने इसका अनुभव किया है, और प्रयत्न करके अपने विचार व्यक्त करने का आपसे अनुरोध करता हूँ.
मेरा मस्तिष्क अधिक तीव्र और कुशाग्र होता है जब मैं भूखा होता हूँ. विचारों का प्रवाह तीव्र और स्वचालित हो जाता है. नवप्रवर्तनशील (innovative) और गहरे विचार जन्म लेने लगते हैं. क्या कारण हो सकता है?

भूख संसार की सबसे प्राचीन (old), आवर्ती (periodic) और बुनियादी (basic) समस्या है. मनुष्य और किसी भी समस्या को हल करना टाल या छोड़ सकता है सिवाय भूख के. जब हम भूखे होते हैं समस्त संवेदनाएं और मस्तिष्क जाग्रत हो जाते हैं, जो की और समय में अप्रयुक्त (unused) व सुषुप्तावस्था (sleep mode) में होती हैं. इस जागरण की बेला में यदि कोई नए विचार की चिंगारी प्रगट हो और उसका निर्वाहन (persevere) किया जाये तो हम कुछ नया प्रगट कर सकते हैं. नया स्वयं के लिए या पूरे संसार के लिए, यह आपकी सोच के इतिहास पर निर्भर करता है. शायद यही कारण था कि ऋषि-मुनि भूखे रहकर लम्बे समय तक तप किया करते थे.

निष्कर्ष: भूख के कारण जाग्रत संवेदनाओं और चेतना का उपयोग यदि विचार के लिए किया जाये (जितनी देर संभव हो) तो उत्कृष्ट दर्शन (philosophy) या साहित्य (literature) का जन्म हो सकता है.

मैंने यह भी अनुभव किया है कि मन, भूख के समय में अलग और पेट भर जाने के बाद अलग तरह से सोचता है. भोजन आलस्य प्रदान करता है, शरीर को ही नहीं, मस्तिष्क और संवेदनाओं को भी. आप एक प्रयोग करें. एक कविता या blog लिखना शुरू करिये जब आपको भूख लगी हो. कुछ देर बाद जब विचार आने लगें और कविता बनने लगे, तो उसे वहीं छोड़कर पेट भर स्वादिष्ट खाना खा लीजिये. अब फिर से कविता पूरी करने का प्रयत्न कीजिए. क्या कोई अंतर प्रतीत होता है? कृपया अपना अनुभव हम सब से अवश्य व्यक्त करिये.

Hunger Therapy: I have an idea, all the people who are feeling lazy or dull or out-of-mood should try "Hunger Therapy". Suppose you are feeling dull this evening. Start fasting, don't eat anything until the hunger becomes uncontrollable. I believe the hunger will awaken your senses and remove dullness.

आप विचार करें, मैं अब भोजन करूंगा.

सस्ता शेर

The following is to tickle Your Funny Bone, taken from सस्ता शेर

Understanding Indian Politics

Almost every educated and civilized person believes that democracy is the best way for progress of a country. I am no different. But, I think, pure democracy at all levels will lead to a chaos and ego clashes. Because, democracy makes every person equal, and if everybody is equal, there won’t be any leaders. I will take examples of Indian politics. By all means India is democratic. Ideally our political parties should be democratic too i.e. their leader should be ELECTED by the party members, and it happens; only the elected member belongs to the same family of the previous leader.

Axiom: Only a blood relative of a big political leader has the ability to become a big politician in India.

Proof:

• Congress has the most powerful family at helm. That’s why this party has ruled India the maximum.
• Whereas when we see the other parties, they came into power riding high on the public image of somebody but vanished soon after. Janta Party came into power because of JP (Jayaprakash Narayan), but since JP did not have any scion to take the mantle from him, Janta Party disappeared.
• Similarly BJP came to power because of Vajpayee, but sadly he is a bachelor. :-) So no question of son/daughter taking the responsibility. Today, everybody in BJP is equally big leader and there is no super leader to lead them. That’s causing it’s downfall.
• The sons of Karunadhi are the strong contenders for the crown of Tamilnadu. I can predict the downfall of AIADMK after Jayalalitha if she remains unmarried. :-)
• The sons of Deve Gawda are the most likely for chief ministership of Karnataka in future.
• Sons of Mulayam Singh Yadav are ready to take the UP battle from him. Poor Mayawati, she is still unmarried.

So, an engineer can not certainly produce (biologically) an engineer, same is true for a doctor, scientist, cricketer and so on. But only a big politician can produce a successful politician in India. The world’s biggest democracy is run by monarchs, literally.

Well, this is strange and seems wrong from an idealistic point of view, but it works that way in Indian politics. So the future India will more likely be led by the sons/daughters of Sonia Gandhi, Bal Thackarey, Mulayam, Karunanidhi, Chautala, Narendra Modi…..and so on.


Similarly, there are companies in western countries owned by professionals, but traditionally India has had family owned businesses (the TATAs, Birlas, Godrej, Bajaj, and so on). The globalization has given us the professionally owned companies like L&T and Infosys. But still, till today majority of Indian businesses are owned (or controlled) by families.

Conclusion: Family owned political parties and businesses are most suitable and stable for Indian conditions.

* And Gandhis will rule here generation after generation.

Diwali - Missing Home

Sitting here in USA on the eve of Diwali, this poem of Dr. Rajeev K. Saxena best describes my feelings.

Thanks Dr. Saxena.

Very Happy Diwali to all the guests at this page. Please enjoy extra on by behalf.

कौन हो तुम

कौन हो तुम,
कौन हो तुम रात की जो
नींद को हमसे चुराकर
याद का आकार लेकर
तब हमारे पास आकर
कल्पना की सतह पर तब
भाव को आकार देती
भाव निर्मित चित्र में
बहु रंग की बरसात करती
स्नेह सागर की लहर में
ज्वार का वरदान बनोगी?
प्रेम की ताकत मुझे दे
क्या मेरी पहचान बनोगी?

कौन हो तुम,
कौन हो तुम हृदय की जो
अनकही कहने लगी हो
स्वप्न में आती नहीं तुम
स्वप्न में रहने लगी हो
विरह की यह वेदना जब
हृदय तल को बेध जाती
याद की खिड़की खुली
औ तुम खड़ी हो मुस्कुराती
इस अधूरी कविता का क्या
तुम ही पूर्णविराम बनोगी?
अपने दिल की बात छुपाकर
क्या अब भी अनजान बनोगी?

Love - Another Dimension

To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She's earned it, it's a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtues for her sake -- and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your self-esteem.
What is love, if it is not self-sacrifice?

----Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"