Universe in us.

 Consider following illustrations:
(a) When your toddler draws on the wall with crayons or throws food on the floor, you are likely to be indulgent about his behaviour. But if your neighbour's toddler comes to your house and does the same? We are used to the mind fooling us about what our senses are detecting.
 (b) Say you are going to a party and are told in advance that Mr.X, who will be there, is on trial for multiple burglaries in your area. At the party Mr.X comes upto you and and casually asks, "Where do you live?" The sound arriving in your brain through the mechanics of hearing will produce a very different response than if someone else had asked the same question.
(c) We have all experienced at some time or other that the speed of a moving object appears different when someone is standing on another moving object.Since the speed of anything is measured by the time it takes to travel a certain ddistance, sudddenly time and space had to be related as well. Very soon Einstein's chain of reasoning became complicated. But in this process he cracked the code of space, matter, energy and gravity by using the experience of visual images.
 Does this lead us to believe that we are creating our own personal reality according to our own experinces? Of course. Every moment of the day we relate to reality through all kinds of filters that are uniquely our own. A person you love is disliked by someone else. A colour you find beautiful is ugly to another person. A job interview that sends you stress response poses no threat to a job applicant who happens to be more self-confident. The real question is not whether we are creating reality--all of us do--but how deeply our interventions go? Is there anything that is real "out there" independent of us?
My opinion is 'no'. Everything known to be understood as 'real', from a subatomic particle to billions of galaxies, from the big bang to possible end of the universe, is keyed to observation and as such to human beings. If something is real beyond our experience, we will never know it.
 While Einstein has seen in his mind's eye that would overturn time and space, other scientists in quantum physics are dismantling evryday reality even more radically. Solid objects are now seen as energy blocks. The atom is observed to be mostly empty space. One by one, the quantum revolution has taken away every reliable bit of the world "out there". Intellectually, the consequences are devastating. Since it is all happening in our mind, why not to conclude 'We are universe'?

A Limerick of Courage.

                I am 72, an age when one waits not for the morning but for the night. I think a lot nowadays, sitting in the veranda of my little house when I let my memories roam freely. During a recent ruminating afternoon, I saw my neighbour, Savitri, hobbling down the road.

                “Biting the nails as usual?” she called out as she entered the jasmine-arched gate. Savitri is a cheerful soul, though she is racked by arthritic pains. “Stir yourself now. I am taking you to a friend’s home.” Being two years older, Savitri feels she has the right to order me about.

                 Savitri’s friend was charming but it was her daughter Vani, who struck a chord in my heart. Vani was a lovely girl, intelligent, yet soft and gentle. She showed me beautiful sketches, unusually designed birthday cards, doggerels and limericks---there seemed no end to her creativity. I noticed that she limped but decided to enquire about it later.

                 “Can you write a limerick in my young friend Sarat Rao’s honour?” I asked her. “It is his birthday next week.” “That would be fun,” she replied. “Describe him to me.” After I did so, she disappeared into her room and returned some time later with a beautifully bordered letter paper on which was inscribed:

There was a gentleman called Rao

With peace writ over his brow

He loved flowers and trees

And the scent in the breeze

His garden was paradise enow!

                  “That suits him perfectly. Thank you.” I said.

                On our way back, Savitri explained the limp. “She is a brilliant research student. A rash biker knocked her down six months ago. She has been through major surgery and painful physiotherapy sessions.”

And I had thought that the young had nothing to give me!

Commuting Monkeys

Once during 1968, when I was travelling by train in a remote part of Kerala-Karnataka border, I found myself in a sleeping compartment with a door to the platform on each side but no connection with the corridor. Although I had been warned never to open the wire mosquito nets on the windows, I almost strangled from the airless compartment and, once night fell, I threw the warning to the winds.

Before dawn I awoke and realized that I was not alone in my compartment. Clearly a hobo had jumped aboard while I slept and judging from the curious noises coming from other three berths, there might be more hobos aboard.

Gradually the sunlight came in, and to my horror I saw that my compartment was full of large fearsome monkeys. One of them was munching on my shoe laces; another was ripping a shirt on the hanger into strips. It was terrifying. Big monkeys are savage and can rip human flesh apart in a matter of minutes. I lay still. After about ten minutes the train slowed down and, before the carriage stopped, the monkeys leapt through the window and dropped to the ground. I watched them pound uphill towards an oil-palm plantation.

I dressed quickly and met the station master on the platform. “Why did the monkeys get off here?” I asked him.

“You see, sir,” he explained, “they come every morning on this train to eat oil-palm nuts on this plantation. Then they eat and sleep but wake to catch the six o’clock train back home.

Major Padmapani Acharya

When in 1948 Pakistan secretly invaded India in Kashmir and then as Indian troops started repulsing them back, ceasefire was agreed upon at a particular position. Since that time the same position has existed over there till date. It is called ‘line of control’. Under a conspiracy hatched again, Pakistani army entering secretly into our side of the line of control in Kargil area up to a distance of 10 kms. Occupied some high peaks. As it came into Indian army’s knowledge it took no time in realizing that these peaks were of great strategic importance for us. Perched on them, Pakistan army could keep an eye all the time on the movements of our army columns to other parts of Kashmir. Indian army began its assault to get these posts vacated. During a month long bitterly fought war, a large number of our army officers and jawans sacrificed their lives. The posts established by Pakistani army were located on higher altitudes, while we had to dislodge them by attacking them from lower positions. In spite of these adverse circumstances our troops forced the enemy to quit this area and reestablish its control there.

Wg. Cdr. Jagan Nath Acharya was a colleague of mine in Agni team. We were neighbours also in D.R.D.O. residential complex. Children from nearby areas used to play cricket together every evening and on holidays. Wing Commander’s son, Padmapani, was the captain of this team due to his bubbling enthusiasm. Joining army after a few years he left the colony for his appointment. Thereafter, he was seen at times, whenever he came home on vacation, but always made it a point to meet his friends even during those visits. One day during Kargil war, Wing Commander casually talked to me in office stating that Padmapani is posted in Kargil sector these days and that remains a cause of worry for the family due to dangerous environment prevailing there. Trying to boost his morale, I told him not to worry and that everything would be alright.

Same night the news was received about Padmapani Acharya’s martyrdom. Along with Acharya family, we also plunged in grief. Myself and my wife went and met the grieved parents. There was Mrs. Charu Padmapani also at home, waiting to become a mother for the first time within next few weeks. Both of us were feeling the pain of this family but at the same time admired the exemplary balance maintained by them even in this terrible time.

Within a few weeks after this tragedy, when we came to know about their younger son joining army, we could not but bow our head to Acharya family.

Strangers on a Chain.

My late father used to tell us this episode, which I want to share:

“In 1947 our family moved from the erstwhile West Punjab (now Pakistan) to Amritsar in East Punjab (India). We had to travel by train. We were warned that we should carry a permit for our household goods to avoid their being confiscated at a border post near Atari.

Our permit was to expire at midnight of a particular day, but we had problems with train tickets and finally got them for a trip just prior to the expiry date.

Our heavily loaded passenger train left an hour late and though it raced against the time, we still reached the border 15 minutes past midnight. The customs man on duty would not let us pass and no amount of pleading would move him.

We were forced to unload our goods on marshy land. None of us slept that night. Early next morning passengers who arrived by another train saw our plight and suggested that we approach the customs official through someone very close to him. His family doctor, we were told, would do nicely enough.

But how could we approach the doctor when we were new to the place? As we brooded over the matter, we learnt that doctor could be influenced by his driver. Now, a hunt began to locate the driver. When we finally found him he was reluctant to undertake the job. Then a passenger who had travelled with us suggested that the driver was friendly with a popular barber of that area. If only he could be persuaded!

All of us menfolk ran to the shop. The barber was willing, but, as he put it, he could only help his customers. “All of us will have our hair cut,” we offered. “That makes a difference,” the barber replied.

The sacrifice was worth it. Soon, we were able to travel despite an expired permit, thanks to the barber-driver-doctor-customs man chain.”

Sea at Chandipur

A peculiarity of sea at Chandipur (Dist. Balasore, Odisha) is that in addition to normal high and low tides (Jwar and Bhata), associated with moon’s phases, there is another noticeable daily cycle for maximum and minimum water level. It is a strange phenomenon. Once during 24 hours the level of sea water rises so much so, that it touches the boundaries of Test range campus (DRDO), while receding at other time it goes back around 5 to 8 kms away from here. During this period one can easily walk, run or cycle around on the beach sand. The timings for these “high and low” differ everyday throughout the year, which can be found out by complex formulations. The physics of this “happening” lies in the inclination of earth around its axis and latitude/longitude of this place.

Missile flight trial teams utilize this occurrence to retrieve the metallic remnants from flights conducted towards sea for studying and drawing possible conclusions.

There is only one more such place in the world, somewhere in Brazil, which also experiences this phenomenon.

Junoon

Major Jai Bahuguna’s death on Mount Everest in October 1985 marked the tragic end of a story that began in April 1971. That day, his elder brother Harsh died in Everest.

Jai hero-worshipped his brother and was shattered on his death. Grieving silently, he made one resolve; he would climb Everest as homage to Harsh.

Jai had climbed no mountains till then. His brother’s death changed all that. Jai turned to mountaineering with ferocity and was soon going on one expedition after another.

“Give up this madness,” his mother would plead. “Mountaineering is not dangerous,” Jai would reply. “That is what Harsh said, and see what happened?” Jai would say nothing. His mother knew Jai wanted only one thing in life, to climb the mountain that had defeated his brother.

I see similarities in their lives which they lived and death which they died. Both were Army majors. Both died in their second attempt on Everest. Both died at roughly the same height---8000 meters. But Harsh died alone, Jai with three team mates.

Did they ever fear that mountaineering would take their lives? Most certainly not. The MAHABHARATA says that one of the world’s greatest wonders is that no man, though he sees others dying all round him, believes he himself will die.