Ticketless Travelling

Like most of the days, I was late again….
Last evening I had noticed that my train pass had just expired. Weary evening did not encourage me to stand in the long queue for the issue of a new one. I postponed the task to the next morning…and there I was, late again…

Forget the pass, I did not even care to take a ticket. Overlooking the booking office, I quickly ran up the flight of steps of the over bridge. Just as I reached the landing to take some deep breath, the message on the board flashed before my eyes – “FOR BONAFIDE USERS ONLY”, which meanwhile, increased my already fast-beating heart-beat. My legs slivered a little, but I moved on…with a hope to board the immediate train on the platform towards Churchgate.

Seeing the train approach the platform, I ran, in order to catch this one. Till I reached the platform, the train had geared off. I missed it. I stood in danger zone. I had no ticket. I was not a ‘bonafide traveller’. I looked out if there was any ticket checker to catch hold of me…and soon a person in a black blazer approaches me. I turn my eyes. But he looks at me, and follows the linear path. I am scared. I turn my whole body in the opposite direction. The man comes and pats my shoulder. I turn…

“Will this train halt at Andheri?” he asks pointing at the indicator.
“Yes,” I answer heaving a sigh of relief.

Quitting the platform drama, I quickly board the train arrived. And I am careful to look out for an undercover T.C. To my relief, there is a seat vacant. I quickly grab it before any one else. I take a look behind, in the gangway. I am safe.

The train moves and I suddenly see a person putting his hand in his pocket. He takes out his pen, and his diary. I mistake it for the fine receipt. No he is just another traveler! I put my hand on my chest only to suppress my thumping heart beat. It is pumping fast, I discover. I place my thumb on the other hand; move the wrist watch, to check my pulse. Suddenly, someone shows me the hand towards the seat. I look up. His eyes are wide open, demanding, compelling, and complaining. My face, on the other hand, bewildered, perplexed! But the man asks me only to get aside, for a fourth seat! Before I moved, I took my handkerchief out of my pocket. I moved and then wiped of the tiny droplets of sweat trickling from my temples…

Soon the next station arrived. What if the T.C. entered in? If he catches me, what will I do? Do I have an old ticket, so that I can fool him or something? Or will he overlook me? I closed my eyes, pretending that I am asleep. But my thoughts ran… how much will he fine me? Do I have that much? Even if I have, am I ready to pay that much? I should have brought a ticket, I felt at that moment (but where was the time for that!). What a shameful position it will be in front of everyone, if I am caught! I opened my eyes. The alighting crowd in the train at the arrival of the next station comforted my situation to some extent. “T.C.s don’t board in crowded compartments,” I thought. I constantly prayed. “God, this is the last time I am traveling without a ticket, please save me…I assure you, next time, I will surely buy a ticket…”

I get up from my seat with a pounding heart to get down at my station which is just two stops apart. At the next station, a person in a blue shirt boards the train. He is a middle aged man, somewhere in his forties. I doubt him to be the ticket checker. I move towards the gate of the train in the opposite direction. I look across from the window in the partition at his activities as he moves in the compartment. He shakes a person who is asleep on his seat. The person gets aside, and gives him place for a fourth seat. On the other side, my station arrives.

Looking the time in my watch, I learn there is no second to waste. I run, when suddenly, a person catches hold of me…

“Where are you going?” asks the voice…
I raise my head, my eyelids not dropping down….the face seems familiar… I gulp down the saliva in my mouth…
“You scared me…lets run, it’s late…,” I tell my friend…

Poetry

Reminisces

I still remember…
Taking a waste piece of paper,
And quickly rolling it into a pipe!
Then filling a mug with water
And preparing a soapy solution
Agitating it to get foam of froth.

Then going out to the barsâti -
Overlooking the world against the parapet
Carefully,
Keeping the froth-filled soapy mug on the wall,
And dipping the paper pipe into it,
I would blow out bubbles of soap in space.
Some would rise up – the air taking them even higher,
Others would descend down due to gravity.
Both would eventually burst.

But not dampened by the spirit;
Putting the pipe again in the suds,
I
Would blow out more globes of glass -
Till the water emptied
And the paper dissolved…

Bomb-ay

Bomb-ay
….the 7/11 attack

I just don’t know what I would have done had I been in the compartment in which the bomb blast took place. One of the possibilities is that my hands and legs would fly up in the air rendering me handicap or the rest of my life. But as soon as I think of this, my heart starts pumping faster and somehow the brain just refuses to accept the thought. Hence my mind drifts and places me in the adjoining compartment…. This would perhaps cause me some injury, wounds and all that. Well, was I prepared for that? No, it would disrupt my entire year. And then getting back to normal would again take much of my time….as it is, I am a slow person…

Well so my mind takes me even farther in some of the remote compartments of the same train. And then it hears a huge blast which deafens my ears. I cannot hear anything and hence I try to just peep out of the train…I see people jumping out on the tracks…and unaware of what has happened, I too jump out seeing the people. Soon people realize that it is a bomb blast. Many of them rush for help…

What would I have done in such a situation? Rushed for people’s help…or rushed to get back home immediately, as soon as possible.

Considering the first case – helping people would require a brave heart. I start debating with myself about this…do I possess a brave heart or no? Most of the times the reply is negative. But deviating from this reality, had I been a bit brave, I would have helped people to take the injured bodies to the hospital. If not even that, I would have tried to contact the police and get them to the point of the incidence.

All this seems farfetched to my mind.

Hence I further go away from the blast site…where I would be one of the persons helping those who are mentally affected and tried to consolidate them, pacify them or serve them with some of the much needed water, tea or biscuits. Here I see myself doing the job much as a responsibility - as a responsibility of the citizen of Mumbai, and as a human first. Still, to distill it further and come to my situation then, I was at my apartment, unknown of the whole incident when the door bell rings…

My brother opens the door and finds the neighbour informing about the blasts… he promptly picks up the remote control switches on the television; and starts flipping through the many news channels. Every channel displaying the same images…it was horrific…I count all the people in my house and find my father missing (mom had gone to native place). Quickly I take my mobile and start dialing my father’s cellular number…just then I see the flash on the television - that all the phone lines are jammed…

However, incoming calls from outside Mumbai were still allowed…the telephone did not stop ringing till night, there were continuous messages of we being fine at our home, and dad too could be contacted via a distant call…every one was safe…

Nest day, the local trains were back again on their tracks transporting public…but the bulk was less. Evening, I too get ready for my music classes…all fine, I prepare to return….my train reaches Mahim (which was one of the stations where the bomb blast took place). Suddenly there was a shout… ‘run, run, run’…. People start jumping out of the train, within no time the train is vacated. The empty train reminds me of the blast scenes…my colleague holds my hand tight, and we enter the train again…a short announcement follows and the train moves…

Cockroaches and henroaches

Cockroaches and Henroaches…

“You know, cockroach is the only creature which is existing from the time when the dinosaurs existed on the earth.” Our science teacher told us…

Soon, a picture of cockroach came into my mind…

It is a dark maroon coloured creature, having two long antennas at the apex of its mouth. (yuck!). I have never zoomed in to see where its eyes are located. Somehow, calling it an ‘it’ would be grammatically controversial. Because you definitely have a he-cockroach and a she-cockroach! That is, a cockroach and a hen-roach (this is the right word!). A cockroach and a hen-roach make out to produce siblings!!!! Ever tried to imagine how their mating takes place…well, I have no interest. I am afraid of cockroaches!

My fear of cockroaches generated when I was barely 5 years old. I had taken part in a fancy dress competition, wherein I had dressed up as “Ram” (from Ramayana). I had worn a dhoti and kurta…that day, I returned home, and slept with the dhoti on at night. Suddenly, I experienced a prickly tickling on my thighs in my sleep. I jump out of my bed, and a cockroach falls out of my dhoti…(eeeeeeeee L)…it was scary for a 5-year old.

However, I won third prize in the fancy dress competition.

Oh! We were discussing cockroaches…so some of them can fly too. Earlier, I have seen flying cockroaches, but now a days, I seldom see them. However, they do have wings! All I remember from the “Classification of Animals” table that I studied in my 9th standard is that cockroaches belong to the class Arthropoda. This class of animals had well developed thighs and legs (why the hell did they develop!). We had also studied the anatomy of a cockroach, wherein, there were detail figures of its cross and lateral sections….I wanted to tear those pages out of my text book, but then I would have lost the text of the adjacent pages!

A common experiment taught to us by the text books was that no living being can survive without oxygen. There, they had taken two cases. The experiment consisted of two glass jars…one had some holes on its cap, and the other without holes. Then COCKROACHES would be introduced in both the jars. The cap would be closed. The observation was that, after 24 hours, the cockroaches in the jar with holes in the cap, survived, while those in the packed jar died. I would wonder, why they needed two jars, they could have put all in one…the one without holes! The experiment would still have the same conclusion!

“What do cockroaches eat?” I asked my teacher.
“They eat anything”, replied the teacher.
“I’ve never seen them eat anything!”

But the immense satisfaction that I got, when I saw the crawling lizard on the wall, preying upon the cockroach is unexplainable! The food chain is a wonderful thing! It keeps us…errr, me alive.

However, over the years, I have generated some courage in my heart at least to kill cockroaches. I have seen my father grab a running cockroach, in his handkerchief, and throw it out of the window. And I feel that it is an achievement! On the contrary, I take a fleet, and run behind the creature, and sprinkle the killing liquid on it (him/her). Nowadays these creatures get used to insecticides also which I think, is serious issue that scientists should take up as soon as possible.

The way the cockroach dies on spraying of an insecticide is interesting. First it feels the burns on its back, and then to ease the burn, falls on its back….afterwards, it is unable to turn, and eventually it dies. It is gluttonous…complicated creature…perhaps it has eight legs…or six…I don’t know! I can’t concentrate on a cockroach!

All this apart, some people enjoy holding a cockroach by its antennae. They make it run as fast as possible by stamping as close to the creature as possible, but not on it. My aunt says that she loves the tickly feeling when the cockroach runs on her body….

Enough……I can’t write more….

Monumental Marvels...(from The Times of India)

Monumental Marvels
By Jayant V. Narlikar


The episode of Mayasura in the Mahabharata tells us of the magnificent palace built by this remarkable architect for the Pandava princes. The palace was reputed to contain several marvels, and more importantly, optical illusions. There is the story of Duryodhana being shown around the palace and falling into a pool of water mistaking it to solid ground. Likewise there were examples of solid floors being mistaken for water pools.
Such illusions are created by cleverly incorporating the optical phenomena Reflection and refraction into architecture. Myths apart, there are real relics that tell us about the maturity of a civilisation through its scientific content. These can be of many types and find expression through optical and acoustical effects as well as other subtleties built into architecture and landscaping. The science may also have a utilitarian aspect. The drainage system of the Harappan civilisation, for example, shows certain level of advance on the ladder of practical engineering. A mature level of metallurgy is likewise indicated by the non-rusting alloy used in the iron pillar near the Qutub Minar in Delhi.

The principle of the pinhole camera is used in the Virupaksha temple. Here the light rays going through a tiny orifice and failing on a wall produce an inverted image of the light source on the wall. This method is seen in operation when the image of the gopuram of the temple falls inverted on one of the walls of the main temple 100 feet away. Another well known optical effect is seen on the face of the Buddha statue in an Ajanta cave: The carved expression of the face indicates different moods depending on the location of external light falling on it. Was the statue designed that way or did this happen by chance? Use of mirrors in lighting the underground chambers or other interiors of the fort in Gwalior is another clever optical arrangement. Likwise, in the fort of Chittorgarh, you can see a demonstration of how Padmini's face was shown reflected to Allauddin Khilji to satisfy his curiosity, without letting him actually see her.

Many science museums proudly exhibit whispering galleries where whispers carry across several metres, provided the source and receiver are properly placed, e.g., at the focal points of two parallel curved reflectors. A much more impressive demonstration of the same effect is found in the circular gallery of the Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur. In spite of a general high level of noise raised by crowds of tourists, I was able to pick up words spoken softly from a diametrically opposite point.

The signaling system at the Golconda Fort near Hyderabad uses a similar acoustic effect. A clap produced at the main entrance gate can be heard at the top of the fort a kilometre away. This facility was no doubt as useful in conveying messages those days, as a mobile telephone is today. The Vitthal temple at Hampi has musical pillars. They produce pure musical notes of the sargam when tapped. These use the principle of resonance similar to that used in a sitar. Clearly those who designed these pillars were familiar with the working of musical instruments.

What were the motivations for the creators of these monuments in incorporating these effects? Was this done on purpose or did it just happen accidentally? Looking at the precision of these examples, the latter alternative seems less probable. It is not necessary, however, for them to have known the fundamentals of the science of sound, namely that it travels in longitudinal waves, that its speed is determined by a formula using the elasticity and density of the medium, that resonance can be an important effect in amplifying sound, and so on. Many of these properties can be discovered empirically, through trial and error. That is how musical instruments in common use were made and perfected. The pair of shaking minarets in Ahmedabad is another demonstration of resonance. Why does one minaret vibrate when the other is shaken by hand? Again, the effect is startling even if you know the scientific explanation. Those who have read Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat would know about the maze at the Hampton Court Palace on river Themes, west of London. The maze landscaped into the gardens of the palace is a popular tourist attraction. It is easy to get lost in it and difficult to come out if you do not know the trick. We have replicated it in the science park at our centre at IUCAA in Pune.

Mazes have existed in India too. The Famous chakravyuha in the Mahabharata war which Arjuna's son Abhimanyu could enter but not get out of, is a maze that is technically called a labyrinth I was shown how to draw it by my mother and later was interested to find that the map resembles exactly the Cretan maze of ancient Greece. In a labyrinth there is only one winding route towards the specified target.
The Archaeological Survey of India and UNESCO sponsored a workshop recently in Delhi organized by the Surabhi Foundation to collect together such remarkable instances of science peeping through monuments. It was felt that a deeper study of such monuments is needed, not only to understand entire science behind them but also the motivation of their creators in having incorporated them in the first place. For many, it may throw some light on the scientific ethos of those times!

Architecture of a Bird

Architecture of a Bird
...the bird has selected an intelligent site
ANUJ DAGA, mumbai.

And it flew away! Just about an hour ago, I saw this bird visiting the tree frequently. I have never seen such a bird before within the vicinity of my surroundings. It has green feathers and a greyish body. Her forehead is red and she has red claws too.

The bird, as I saw, was busily carving a hole in the Gulmohar tree rooted in our building's compound. My window, where my study table is, frames a large portion of this tree. Since it rained yesterday; the leaves are fresh, without any dust, and as green as they could be. Moreover, the iron grill of my window has rectangular blocks, one out of which exactly encases the branch that the bird has selected to build in her residence. As we all know, the Gulmohar tree has these compound leaves.... each composite leaf multiplying into numerous smaller leaflets. And finally, each bush of the tree is topped by a bundle of bright red flowers containing tiny pollen grains.

Taking advantage of such a situation, and also its own colour, the bird almost camouflages with the site.
The branch the bird has selected is very different. Actually it's a junction of two tributaries of the tree. With no leaf on the branch, it also does not have a good appearance, f wonder, if the bird had been a human, she would have immediately rejected the place. Some of the portion of the branch has been bruised. The branch is also not completely developed, it is cut from above.... just extending less than a metre above the junction. There are no further distributions of this branch.

And she is back again.... she puts her head repeatedly .in the minor circular cavity she has developed in the bark of the branch which must have become soil after absorbing the water from last night's down pour. Widening the hole, she constantly comes in and goes out of my frame. Now I see... she goes in the bore, then comes out again only to sec whether any one has noticed her and as soon as the crows arrive, she flies away.... leaving the process incomplete.

Didn’t the bird need a shelter before today? Where did she stay before? And why only now, that she decided to build a home for herself? All such questions started bogging down my mind! But thinking on the lines; I got some answers. Last night it rained very heavily. Poor bird... if she didn't have a shelter before, she must have become a target of the rain. May be she realized that the monsoon has arrived and there is a need of shelter. Or was she pregnant? Well, she didn't seem to be! Or else, how could she fly so easily and in that case, it would have been her male counterpart doing the job. Somehow, I am very confident that the bird was a female.

As explained before, the site she had chosen was not quite nice. But analyzing the site, she must have chosen such a branch as it is half cut and no one would notice her (but she failed to so that as she is right in front of my eyes!). The cavity that she was drilling with her short beak was just above the junction. Perhaps, since the branch does not extend vertically above the cavity, there is no fear that the branch falls as the ends thin out internally. That is, the load of the upper half of the branch does not let it crack, even when the branch is hollow at the bottom.

Talking in architectural terms, the bird has selected a beautiful, but intelligent site. The hole in the branch is made on that side, where it makes an acute angle with the horizontal plane (in a three dimensional space). This will perhaps prevent the dripping water of rain from entering into the hole, thus keeping the interior space dry and favourable for living. Wood being an insulator, the temperature inside will be maintained. The only source of light is the hole which is made by the bird.... which she uses for entering as well as making an exit.
A small thin leafless branch grows just beneath the junction, extending high. This branch acts as a transition space for the bird, like a porch outside the house. The bird hangs out on this branch looking here and there, guarding her house.

The bird uses an immense intelligence in the construction of the home too. First, the cavity is expanded in the upward direction. She scrapes a little part of the internal wood, and then comes out • to shake it off her beak and body. Then, after acquiring the satisfied depth upwards, she starts deepening the cavity downwards. Deepening the cavity afterwards has two advantages - one is that the bird herself does not get stuck inside the cavity she has made (because now, the floor level is the just where the hole begins). Also such a floor level helps the bird reach higher inside the branch. The second, and the more important and logical reason is that the dust that she is developing while scraping off the upper part does not accumulate in the lower cavity It would have become highly difficult for the bird to remove the scrapings from such a place, because unlike humans, the bird cannot blow it off!

In about six to eight hours, the bird is successful in "building" her house. Despite of the numerous difficulties she faced like the agitation of crows (who were just not letting her remain at that place), she kept her work on. She kept on familiarizing her face to them., as if announcing that she would be a part of their society now.

Past four days, she did not even visit the site where she decided to stay.... And it didn't even rain for the past four days. I'm just waiting for the monsoon to arrive.... to discover more about the bird.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________


After all this what comes to my mind is that all creatures are subjected to extremes of heat and coolness, but
most animals are much better equipped than man to escape such impacts or counteract them biologically.

As cold arrives, the mink grows a new fur coat, birds fly south and the bear lubernates to reduce its metabolism through slumber. To cool his blood in hot weather, the elephant moves his honey-combed ears. The bat can survive
a change in its own body up to a temperature of 60 degrees. Termites build their hills in such a way that water never enters inside.... be it rain or an artificial source. The temperature inside is always maintained through air holes above. How did the bird come to know till what depth to penetrate inside the bark sideways so that the bark is not scraped off? Building sustainable habitats is still a million dollar question for humans.... And at least 1 man is still unfortunate in this case!