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.