Life and Death the miracles of God's creation.

Life and death are known facts which every generation bears. My Thakuma (in Bengali Father's mother) has died few days back and it brings back all the memories of her.

As I stayed in Andaman, only once a year summer vacation brought me to Calcutta for few days. During our stay in Calcutta she used to eat with us in our house and stay in the Ancestral house.(It is a culture in Bengali custom that once a bride comes to her husband house she should leave it only on her funeral) Thakuma has three sons my father being the middle one. Our home is been build adjacent to the Ancestral house. She sometimes feel herself alone even with all the others surrounding her. My father used to tell her to stay in our house when we were back in Andaman but that simple custom of staying in Ancestral house prevented her from that. It is the irony of life that customs makes you impaired sometimes.

She being 90 years is quite known that she will demise any day but when the final day arrived you feel a void as one of your family member is not there. The ritual that follows after someone demise is huge. That includes 12 days of mourning during which there are strict restrictions like prohibition of eating non veg, not cutting the nails and hair, not shaving and  wearing shoes and cooking in malsas( vessels made with clay) and which must not be covered. The food consisting of rice and vegetables called the hobisanya should be eaten only once and the rest of the time only fruits. I must say it is a lot going on during these period. At the end there is a maha bhoj(feast) for the relatives which includes all the non-veg and veg foods. They say when people feel satisfied after the eating, the soul of the dead person will rest in peace.

The customs I feel make people realize that life is indeed precious. Loosing someone realizes you that all around you is a world created by the Almighty and we are just the puppets of his,playing our part. Death being the final act of every soul.

Driving a miracle or curse

Sometimes i think knowing how to drive(either two wheeler or four wheeler) is really a miracle for me.But read on to know how it can be a curse for some people.

Driving makes me independent and I can do things which otherwise needs the help from my husband(if he has time) or the auto(if you get that as where i stay quite few autos come)

Today i was keen to join the swimming class,drove all the way(started at 4.30pm) to my husband's office but when we reached for doing the regestration formalities the place which give the tranning(this was in koromangala) to much of my disapppointment today was monday and it was closed.

The next thing my husband told is to buy the swimming cap and swimming goggles from olympic sports(jayanagar).

As you all know i know driving i drove all the way to jayanagar from koromangala and bad luck today was monday and it was also closed.The time i came home(its in bannerghatta road) was 8.00pm because of heavy traffic.I hate rash driving but i was in a hurry and was doing that.

The whole experience was driving for 3.5hrs.

I was mad when i reached home and was feeling how the persons who drive the whole day(autowallas and cab-drivers)feel when they reach home.Thats the reason for rash driving by autowallas and cab drivers.

Why i told in the beginning it is curse for some people because i was feeling today driving as a curse as ,if I didnt know driving, i would not have gone and there is always some other person to drive(either husband or the autowalla or the bus-driver) who takes the pain.

Driving is an art but sometimes even masters feel the pain.

End of a Legand Jyothi Basu(8 July 1914 – 17 January 2010)

From my early days i have heard of this greate legand who was the last founding Politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), alive till 2010. It is none other than Jyothi Basu or Jyotirindra Basu who is today no more with us.

Today as I sat, I am just recalling of my understanding him as heard from my early days to seeing him till his death.

As I was young my entire family used to support CPM(the red flag with hammer sickle and star)even though i saw there was little or no development in West Bengal.They were unaware of the technological growth of the entire nation, with no industrial growth.I know that during british rule West Bengal used to be the epicenter of all trade and industry in India.

My father used to console me and say this is the party which gave rights to peasants and we should never forget that Basu brought rights to common man.No doubt he was right, Basu played a very active role in the stormy days of 1946–47 when Bengal witnessed the Tebhaga movement, workers strikes and even communal riots. Everywhere the struggling people had Basu by their side.

After the sweeping victory of the Left Front in 1977, Jyoti Basu became the Chief Minister of the Left Front government,a position he held continuously for more than 23 years, a record in the country (From June 21, 1977, to November 6, 2000,Basu served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the Left Front government). Under his leadership, the Left Front government embarked on land reforms on a scale unprecedented in the country; it instituted a panchayati raj
system which was radical for its times, which gave the poor peasants and small farmers a say in running the panchayati institutions. West Bengal became an oasis of communal harmony and secular values under his leadership.

But it cannot be denied that West Bengal under his rule remained an industrially under-developed state,a process that started when he gained power and which would take years if not decades to reverse.

"Bengal was the economic and intellectual leader of India till it discovered Marxism. It discovered Marxism and like poor Russia in 1917, committed suicide. The economic lead of Bengal has vanished and so has the cultural lead."

All our trade unions were more comfortable with state ownership with the obvious attendant benefits of assured salaries and assured pay increases, full tenures, and annual bonuses, without any relation to productivity and corporate health. Of the 6091 factories in West Bengal in 2001 as many as 252 are deemed sick.And all over strikes have played enough damage.This industrial decline in West Bengal has had a profound impact on the structure of the state's economy.
The only part which was expected out of him was the industrial growth and growth in the economy of the state.He is now preceded by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and i only hope that he understands this and make our West Bengal Sonar Bangla again.

The only reason of me jotting this Blog is paying homage to a true Gentleman and Statesman who served West Bengal and who has donated his body and eyes for medical research.May his soul rest in peace.

Solar Eclipse- January 15,2010

A little Gyan from me what i know about the solar ecllipse.

This set of solar eclipses repeat approximately every 177 days and 4 hours at alternating nodes of the moon's orbit.

The solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 is an annular eclipse of the Sun.

What is Solar eclipse?
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun.

What is Annular Solar Eclipse? An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light.

Why 15 January 2010 is special?

This is the longest annular solar eclipse of the millennium and the longest until December 23, 3043, with a maximum length of 11 mins and 7.8 seconds. (The solar eclipse of January 4, 1992 was longer, at 11 minutes, 41 seconds, occurring in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.) It is seen as annular within a narrow stretch of 300 km (190 mi) width across Central Africa, Maldives, South Kerala (India), South Tamil Nadu (India), North Sri Lanka, parts of Burma and parts of China.It is visible as a partial eclipse in much of Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Path and timing details of the eclipse.

The eclipse starts at the Central African Republic, traverses Cameroon, Congo and Uganda, passes through Nairobi, Kenya, and enters the Indian Ocean and reaches its greatest eclipse.

After that it enters Maldives, where it would be the longest on land with 10.8 minutes of viewing. This makes the tiny islands of Maldives the best spot for viewing this eclipse from land. The annular Eclipse at Male', the capital city of Maldives starts at 12:20:20 hrs and ends 12:30:06 hrs Maldives local time (UTC+5). This is also the longest duration of any city having an international airport in the eclipse track.

At approx 13:20 IST, the annular solar eclipse enters India at Thiruvananthapuram(Trivandrum), Kerala and exits India at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. The eclipse is viewable for 10.4 minutes in India. After Rameswaram, it enters Sri Lanka at Delft Island, exits at Jaffna in Sri Lanka, crosses the Bay of Bengal and re-enters India in Mizorum, to end on the in Sino-Burmese border.

Visit http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2010Jan15A.GIF for a detail information of the 15 Jan 2010 eclipse.

Avatar

So this is my first blog of 2010.The inspiration is the movie Avatar.

If you haven’t already seen Avatar, James Cameron’s blockbusting 3D film, you should make sure you do. No matter what you think of the plot or special effects, this film has a profound and insightful message. To tell something about the director hey he is the one who hardly ever makes a movie without employing state-of-the-art technology to create something we've never seen before.Titanic was the movie which made the highest grossing film in film history.He has dedicated 10 years of his life to develop an awesome movie "Avatar" like this.

For this, he created a language, a remote tribe, their culture and mythology, and a mercenary army to ruin their peace. It should be added that, true to his own culture as an uncompromising envelope-pusher in cinematic lore, he devoted years for the advancement in motion capture technique that helped make sweeping feats of action, destruction, beauty and imagination possible.

A little insight to the story

On the Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, Pandora, resides a tribe of hybrid beings with human DNA. These people--nine feet tall, with tails, carbon fiber bones and bioluminescent blue skin have super-human strength and move gracefully. Called the Na'vi, their existence is spiritually tied to a giant Banyon-like tree that is at once a protector and life-force. Over its roots they live in communal peacefulness concerned with local threats, like the myriad predator creatures that roam their forest.

Grace's research team has developed a method of genetic engineering to "project" a human to Pandora from a coffin-like box equipped with specialized transfer circuitry. The process puts the human into a coma-like state while the subject watches his or her "avatar" out on Pandora.

The corporation's interest in Pandora stems from the discovery that the sacred tree grows over a vast mineral resource called unobtainium (which sounds like a temporary name that never got improved upon), which contains properties that can save Earth from ecological disintegration. Initial mining operations have begun, but visitors from Earth associated with the project have not gone down well with the Na'vi, their behavior and assumptions repugnant to the natives and causing their expulsion.

Their is the mercenary military force taking its marching orders from chief corporate officer Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi). And, when the research-designate is killed, his twin brother--former marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)--is pressed into service for the task despite his paralysis below the waist due to a wartime injury.

From the moment he meets Neytiri (luminous Zoe Saldana) who, after Jake saves himself from becoming the meal of a huge, nasty Thanator by jumping off a waterfall, saves him from attack by a pack of ravaging nantangs. She's the lovely warrior and daughter of the tribal leader, and not much taken by Jake's rash impulsiveness.

But, though her intention was to ferry him back where he came from before he can do harm to others, her impression is forced to change when Jake is suddenly covered in a flurry of airborne jellyfish-like pods of luminescent seeds. Neytiri can scarcely believe her eyes (and they are large, beautiful eyes). The seeds are from Eywa and the great tree has shown that Jake has an unknown potential and is welcome. There is no other choice but to introduce this avatar to her tribe, and to her powerful father.

None have ever before been granted such recognition and the dignity it bestows upon him immediately turns tribal hatred to mystical embrace. Neyteri is commissioned to teach Jake the Na'vi ways and, for a borish and immature youth, the process and the tests he undergoes is a challenging one, full of hairy action and impossible courage.

Neytiri and Jake love towards each other and the sheer will of Jake to protect the Na'vi from the chief corporate officer Parker Selfridge from destroying the sacred tree which relates to the story of the indigenous peoples fight to save their forest homes from corporate exploitation.

The story also states that even though the human race has developed a lot of technology and nuclear weapon and weapons of mass destruction it cannot destroy the sheer will of the people to survive.

Holidays

As a student , I eagerly waited for summer vacation which would last two long months.Those were the days, when I watch Chuti Chuti serial in DD1(the only channel in those days).No studies and mostly fun.

The usual routine changes with us getting up late, though usually we get up at 5.00(during school days) but since vacation we will get up at 6.00am.

Each year we visit Calcutta during our summer vacation.I too will be too eager to visit as i love the greenary and people taking bath in ponds all over the places in Calcutta.Though our results got declared, and our vacation of two months starts, my father would buy the books for the next class and we would carry it with us to Calcutta.Daily after getting up at 6.00am in Calcutta me and my brother had to study the new books(so that we know little bit about our new courses).I hate that as i thought vacation is to enjoy but here i am studying again.Me and my brother will sit in the madur(it is like a mat though it has the size of a large carpet)and would start reading with my father sitting and listening and taking our lessons.The whole thing will stop when my mother would call for our Breakfast.Thats the only time when we study and the the rest of the day is Chuti.

Mostly during my stay in Calcutta i would end up staying in mamarbari(my Uncle's place).They would treat me as a princess as i am the eldest among my cousins.I loved mamarbari a lot as the house is on the roadside with markets all around .I would watch people from all walks of life with various emotions.In the evening the roadside would be full of people who will go to purchase items from shops.Though i remember i didnt like my house(we have our own house in village)as it has not much people and not modern environment and all my father's side cousins are not much close to me.

Sometimes when i remember the days when we used to visit calcutta during vacation it was real fun as the stay was more, and being small the love was more.As compared to now when i visit calcutta it would last only maximum a week and with full of responsibilities.I really miss those long sweet holidays.

Camera

When I was small I never recognized the usage of CAMERA in my life.That time our family was having one camera and most of the time we forget to shoot a picture.In this way my childhood days were never captured much.

Then came my college days since I was having no camera I use to stand by one gal atleast who has camera so that when the roll gets developed I too can ask a copy of that and get it developed.

After marriage my all camera fantasies are been taken care by my husband who has a fasination about photography.I can now say that all moments in my life has been seized by this amazing device.I always feel that any photos when in Album looks much more lively as compared to any snaps stored in Computer.

When I sit and see that snaps I feel that I am living in that era.You remember the various postures you have given so that the photo becomes picture perfect.Photos brings out the emotional part of ours.Photos has a amazing capacity to make you happy when you are down.It brings smile to see your near and dear ones so close to you even when they are so far away.

So I can say that seize the time by just saying 'Say Cheese'.