Having attached to the Indian Space Research Organization for more than two decades, I happen to associate most of our day-to-day activities in terms of the Rocket Launches.
Today, one of my students Mr. Freddy P. Paul made me proud as he received the YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD at NCSAS Conference, Kolhapur. Well done Freddy. Hearty Congratulations. It was quite heartening that many of my colleagues intentionally or unintentionally congratulated me too. I duly appreciate and accept your blessings. Having said that - if I look at the TEACHER-STUDENT relationship (particularly PhD Guide and a Research Scholar), I can very easily compare this relationship as very similar to our Three-Stage GSLV Rocket Launcher. To make the terminology more simpler, let me mention that GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) is a three-stage rocket launcher. The First stage of the rocket is a SOLID ROCKET MOTOR which is capable of providing a thrust of about 4700 kN. We use VIKAS ENGINE, a liquid engine as the second stage which is derived from PSLV's PS2 engine. The second stage provides a thrust of about 800 kN. The third stage of the GSLV is a CRYOGENIC UPPER STAGE, which was initially imported from Russia, but over the years ISRO has started developing this stage ingeniously. Third and final stage, the CUS has potential to provide thrust of about 75 kN. The first stage burns for about 100 to 110 sec, whereas the second stage burns for about 150 seconds. The third and final CUS burns for about 720 seconds. The GSLV is also equipped with strap-on motors which burns for about 160 seconds. If we very carefully look at the growth of a child from a toddler to Pre-KG, LKG, UKG, Primary School, Middle School, High School, Higher Secondary School, Graduation, Post-Graduation, and so on.....we can categorize them in different stages. FIRST STAGE (MOTHER): Starting from the conception of a child, as the fetus begins its journey in a mother's womb, the baby undergoes guidance and navigation through mother. Once the baby is born, the MOTHER feeds him the first MILK, as the baby finds the new world not a comfortable zone as against the WOMB, he CRIES, he CRIES A LOUD. The enormous LIGHT appeals to his eyes, the sound, the surrounding, everything appears new to him. And He prefers to CRY, and MOTHER'S caressing nature makes him comfortable. Isn't it the same work done by our FIRST STAGE OF THE ROCKET ? It works against all the gravity. It provides maximum possible thrust to the rocket. A MOTHER also works against all the ODDS to make the baby comfortable in the new world. The FATHER, SIBLINGS, ALL RELATIVES AND FRIENDS are like the Strap-On motors. They stay with the baby, but only provide additional support through Mother to the Baby. Nobody other than a MOTHER provide the maximum possible thrust to the Baby, hence I have found a MOTHER equivalent to the first stage of rocket in all the possible means. SECOND STAGE (PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS): Once the baby attains a reasonable intelligence and is declared FIT for primary schooling, the required thrust is provided by the Primary School Teachers. Unlike the first stage, this is a liquid stage, and so are the teachers. They adopt all kids in an uniform fashion. They provide the seed of education to the baby. Since a baby is already learned talking and speaking, they need not provide as much thrust as the first stage, but they must perform. A failure in this stage can lead to disasters. Therefore, the burning stage of second motor is larger than the first stage. During this stage, the teachers take whole responsibility of carrying the student from Primary schooling to Graduation and still Higher-Studies level. The process is naturally lengthy, but the student is provided with all possible comfort (similar to the heat shield), and is taken to a more challenging place. Thus, in all the means and in all the analogous comparison, I find PRIMARY SCHOOL AND HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS very much similar to the SECOND STAGE of the Rocket. Having described the FIRST AND SECOND STAGE of the rocket, not all the students opt for Doctorate. So the explanation of third stage differs in case to case. THIRD STATE (OUR CAREER MENTORS): During the lengthy process of our education, all the students develop a certain compassion towards one fields, or one discipline of career. Choice of such decision is mostly done under the influence of a ROLE MODEL or A MENTOR. The main purpose of this THIRD STAGE is to take the student out from the Schooling and to expose him/her to a zero gravity field where he/she can sustain on its own. And under the influence of proper navigation and guidance, the student (satellite) attains its real ORBIT. THIRD STAGE (PhD Guides): Now, let me come back to the primary objective of my blog .... Teacher - Student, or to be more precise (PhD thesis supervisor - Research Scholar relationship) can be very perfectly compared with the CUS stage of the GSLV. For the foremost reason, the burn out period of CUS is about 720 seconds, almost 6 to 7 times more than the FIRST of SECOND stage. Apparently, a PhD student does not spend 6 to 7 times more than the schooling, but following the Einstein's relativity principle, these years of PhD apparently become equivalent to decades. Each month of PhD period appears like years (Until the PhD is over). Burn out of CUS never gets over, so is the iterations of PhD research work. It keep on undergoing changes and frequent modifications. And Unfortunately, all the burn out period of CUS is not measured against its performance, the ultimate goal of the CUS is to take the satellite from second stage to the final orbit. Till the second stage, the weight of a student is carried by the 1st and 2nd stage motors, but as the first and second stage burn out is over, both the stages cut themselves OFF and leave the rest of the responsibility on the CUS. So is the responsibility of a PhD supervisor. Being a PhD supervisor, you can not expect to throw away the satellite (student) anywhere, first because the lengthy burn out time is a time, where the process of lifting the student from the level of Post-Graduation to a Doctorate is carried out. The process of burn out of CUS may certainly sound long, but it need to be immaculate and too precise in ejection of the satellite in final orbit. A PhD Guide must shield the satellite from the rest of the atmosphere and disturbances for the whole burn out period. And finally, when the burn out of CUS is over, the satellite is ejected to its desired orbit. Now, let us also discuss some valid points: 1. Assume a rocket launch is failed, do we ever pin-point that the mission failed because of this particular module ? Answer is NO - We take collective responsibility and try to correct the faulty module. And in real life too, we must follow the same doctrine. 2. If a Satellite fails in its orbit, do we ever blame the rocket launcher ? Answer is NO - Hence, being a student we must learn to perform on our own. Try to grab the maximum possible knowledge from each of the stages, and go to your desired orbit with maximum possible knowledge. Your sustenance will be judged by your own performance, and not by the launcher's performance. 3. When a satellite is ejected properly, do we give credit to CUS ? Answe can be YES or NO. But my take-home message from this question is - the CUS is expected to launch a satellite in the desired orbit. Neither the satellite must be ejected in an early orbit, or in an elevated orbit. The CUS must take a balance to make the ejection of satellite in correct orbit. More over, irrespective of the credits or blame, the CUS must perform its duty to the best of its limit. Eventually, it gives enormous pleasure to me to receive good words from all whenever my student performs well. But I always take it as my responsibility to do my job. The profession of teaching is the most respected profession and it comes with lot of responsibility too. We must maintain a good balance between the anger and the love, the right and the wrong, emotions and the decisions, knowledge and the pride, politeness vs. acceptance. Writing a long blog is my inherent quality. Some of you may get bored, and some of you may enjoy. But I certainly enjoyed sharing my philosophical thoughts. Good Luck and Happy Reading....
2 Comments
Lessons that I learnt from Chevy .... Prior to I pursue my blog - let me make it clear to the readers that my intention through this blog is not to evaluate any commercial company (whether Chevrolet or Jeep), but my idea is only philosophical. Lessons that one can extract from simple life and events around. November 2012: the Decision It was November 2012, when I had decided to go ahead with a four wheeler, my first four wheeler indeed. Within given financial constraints, limitations and freedom, I worked out my budget and began my survey of all possible cars within a budget from 3.5 lacs to about 5.5 lacs or so. Almost all dealers were offering various discounts, and were friendly enough to offer a test ride of their vehicles. A very attractive showroom, friendly staff, elegant ambiance, neat and clean showroom and above all - a very smooth test ride. I was done with my decision - yes, I am going for CHEVROLET SPARK 1.0 LT - Petrol. I never repented for my decision later. Amazing car it was, it is...and it will be.... My Love Affair with My Chevrolet SPARK I must not boost myself, but still - I am told that I often maintain all my vehicles quite neatly and with utmost care. Same was the case with my Spark. Ever since, I bought it - I cared it like anything. It never troubled me. I had full appreciation for Deedi Motors (Chevrolet), and if given a chance, I may give 5/5 stars for their servicing. Different persons may have different views and opinion about Deedi Motors, but they attended to most minor thing as well in detail and all servicing of Spark was worth. Every time, when I took back my car after servicing, I felt like I've once again bought a new car. Smooth ride was an inherent quality of Spark, and it remained integral all through. I don't ride car for long drives too often. Probably, the longest car ride was up to Kanyakumari, Thenmala, or Varkala, or Ponmudi. I would love to go for more long rides, but somehow... I've traveled up to Cochin from Trivandrum in my bike, but did not go for so long rides in Spark. Still, it was superb car. Almost all alternate weekends, I will spend 20 to 30 minutes in our basement washing my Spark. Deedi Motors (Chevrolet) has a strong marketing skills and they are quite sincere and prompt in reminding their customers about servicing date and taking a date for booking of car. In this way, I was in deep love with my Spark as well as the Deedi Motors, who were carrying out servicing of Spark. When my spouse was conceived and delivered "Chinmay", all through my Spark was our companion. Ever since, Chinmay came in his mother's womb, he traveled in this Spark. Thus, my love affair with Spark was very deep. Initially, Chevrolet has promised 3 years warranty, and just before the warranty period was over, they offered Extended Warranty for yet another two years, which I readily agreed and accepted. So my Spark was having a consistent servicing and maintenance. And my love affair continued. The Lesson I took from this love affair was like this - In all our human relations too, you take care of other person's feelings and need, and the other person too will take care of you. I took care of my Spark, and it took care of me. That was the strength of our love affair. But we can not keep same analogy of Love Affair for Humans. Why ? It reminds me of my father's favorite quote (adopted from George Bernard Shaw). HE often used to say: "YOU PICK-UP A STARVING DOG FROM A STREET AND FEED HIM, HE WILL NOT BITE YOU, AND THAT IS THE PRINCIPAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DOG AND HUMAN". Well, rest is up to us to extract lessons from it. But, in my case with Spark - we both took care of each other without any pit or fall. Dense love indeed. Nothing is Permanent, Tough, but its a Fact Some decisions are taken out of blue. Death comes unknowingly. There are so many things in this life, which comes all of a sudden. So was the decision of General Motors to stop their sales in India. Click Here to see News Coverage on "Fall of Chevrolet in India" - 1 Click Here to see News Coverage on "Fall of Chevrolet in India" - 2 Click Here to see News Coverage on "Fall of Chevrolet in India" - 3 All of a sudden, GM decided to make an exit from the Indian market, leaving behind a huge market. The car owners of Chevrolet were left blank and very little was known - what next ? While I felt sorry for the Chevrolet Customers (myself being one), I felt more sorry for the employees of GM in India. What would happen to their jobs ? Very little was known to them as well. But is it not the case with all the jobs ? Even Government jobs are not permanent. I am a Government employee and my appointment letter states - "President of India is pleased to appoint me ...", and, "I am temporarily posted at.... ". That means, whenever the President of India takes away his pleasure, my job is gone. Nothing in this world is eternal. Collapse of GM led to uncertainties on the employment of Chevrolet in India. Those who were loyal to Chevrolet in jobs, were forced to look for opportunities elsewhere. It also meant that - JOB anywhere is not guaranteed, but OPPORTUNITIES are. Our Chevrolet Showroom gradually started its transition. And now, we have a JEEP showroom at the same place under the banner of Deedi Motors. Isn't is quite eventful ? Hard Working Job Seeker Finds Job Easily Though Chevrolet stopped its sales in India, they are continuing servicing of their cars and have promised to continue delivering spare parts of Chevrolet in coming years. Two months back, when I went to Old Chevrolet showroom, it was emotional to see a new showroom under the banner of Deedi Motors. They took up the Fiat and Jeep sales, and came up with different brand cars in the same old show room. The entire setup was changed, though some employees were retained, I found entirely new group of persons. A few old employees were still there, but now they are working for a different company, so naturally they will be marketing for their new company. Then, I asked myself - What am I supposed to learn from all these ? It gave me a lesson that - true hard working person and a genuine job seeker will easily be able to fetch a job. Hard work may go unnoticed, but it pays back, and it pays back in right time. An honest employee must work towards betterment of his/her employer. For old employees, their employer got changed, and they also need to change with time. Probably, we must not be too rigid in our employment. It is more important - what an employer is looking from you, and what we need becomes secondary. So I learnt - nothing is permanent here. Those who are speaking too good for their company, may not endorse their own views, if they change their employment. There was yet another angle to the "rise and fall of Chevrolet". Now the servicing centre of Chevrolet is moved to rearside of Jeep showroom. Once upon a time, Chevrolet had their entire kingdom in this showroom and workshop, but now they are shrinked to a smaller area. It is because of change, inevitable change. Probably, nobody must take their lifestyle for granted. Today, we may have too much money. Or other way round, today we may be living in very much poverty. Either of this status is not permanent. Poverty and Richness must not define our identity. Our true identity is eternal. We will never be weighted by our valuables. In this world, nobody is loved for their valuables. Sometimes, the world around you may provide you an artificial respect, but it is temporary. Wealthy people may earn respect whenever they have wealth. But a person with true values will earn respect forever, eternal respect. Therefore, in this life, we must not go too much behind acquiring valuables, money, wealth..... This all will evaporate one day. But our eternal soul carries values, and unless we keep upgrading our values, keep garnishing our values towards betterment of society and poor people, we can't sustain for long. In a very sudden way, all of a sudden our life can come to an end. What will we leave behind ? And what will we carry with us ? Answer to both the above questions is - NOTHING ? But, we will be forever remembered for what we gave to this Society. And that lies on our inner values, and not the valuables. DISCLAIMER: Dear Readers, I've written this article purely on philosophical basis, and this article has nothing to do with either Chevrolet or any other company. Reader may please read this article with just a passion toward philosophy and respect the message rather than the words. Hope you will like this blog.
Hero Bicycle (1980s) Kinetic Boss Bajaj Discover Yamaha SS 125 Suzuki Hayate EP Chevrolet Spark Few days ago, when I was meditating to control the flow of emotional thoughts, I remembered a very heart-touching speech of HH Radhanath Swami Ji, wherein he expressed that - WE ARE JUST THE CARE-TAKERS.
In this world, we earn several valuables, but we must never forget that we are just the care-takers. Because, we can never own the valuables, but we must try to own the values. Our values are most precious than the valuables. Whatever belongs to you today, may probably will belong to somebody else tomorrow. These sayings are read by us many times in Bhagvath Gita. A couple of days back, I sold my "Chevrolet Spark" to a very genuine person, and with this deal, my so-called love affair with Chevrolet Spark came to an end. But it was not any end. It was just a process. God made me a caretaker of Chevrolet Spark for few years, and during the process, I enjoyed every bit of its ride. In a span of about five and half years, I took care of this car like anything. Whether interior or exterior, I attended to all its needs. Thanks a million to A-class servicing by Chevrolet (Deedi Motors). The deal can be linked with yet another fact, and that is - upgradation. I wanted to upgrade. More over, the so-called "RISE AND FALL OF CHEVROLET" also was an inevitable factor. But during the journey from 2012 to 2018, this car literally became my identity. Most of my friends will easily recognize me through this car. Probably, this is a fact for all others too. More than our own identity, sometimes our cars, bikes, computers, sitting room becomes our identity. We are familiar to refer to inanimate objects with humans. For example, this is Subbu's room, this is his room, this is his notebook, this is her bangles, etc. etc. etc. But as a matter of fact, none of the valuables belong to us. We are merely care takers. As long as you are permitted (by almighty), you will take care of the so-called valuables, and one fine day - you will be made care taker of some new valuables. Then, the so-called your owned valuables get detached to you in one go. More time, we hold some valuables with us, more we become compassionate to them, but valuables are bound to get detached to us. If not today, may be tomorrow. Nobody can carry any valuables to final destiny. In journey of about last 40 years or so, when I recollect my very first bicycle, which was shared by me and Nagu (my second brother), we got both our names painted on the bicycle. Probably, that was only the cycle which we both had, and we used to ride it together. All fun, togetherness, and responsibilities. So sweet was the sensation of having this bicycle. In this bicycle, I learned - how to ride a bicycle. But with due passage of time, the bicycle became irreparable. We were no more care takers of that bicycle then. In 2003, immediately after completion of my PhD, I was recruited as a Project Scientist at INCOIS, Hyderabad. By God's grace, by that time, I had accumulated some small amount, and could manage to purchase my very first bike, that was - Kinetic Boss. Kapil Dev used to advertise for this bike. On a lighter side, when my friends ask me - why Boss ? Then my response would be - so that I can kick my boss every morning. Well, that was fun. But I took so many long rides in this Boss. I never imagined that - one day, I will have to leave this bike. In a matter of just one and half years, I got a Postdoc offer in Korea, and I had to leave the bike, and many other valuables which I had acquired in Hyderabad. I was no more the owner of this Kinetic Boss. It was yet another lesson to me that - I am just a care taker. Then, my journey to Korea was fantastic. Whatever I accumulated in terms of assets in Korea, I just handed over to my next colleague who took over from me. My TV, my bicycle, my mattress, my coat, and so on, I left all behind. I was merely a care taker of all these items. But the master-art of FORTRAN was one asset which got stuck with me. That was not any valuable, but it was a VALUE, which I acquired from my boss there. It is still a living asset with me, and I can proudly claim to be owner of this. That was value, and not valuables. SPL called me back in 2006, and with lot of compassion, I acquired my second bike - Bajaj Discover. As the name suggest, it was actually made to discover. In very first go, I discovered a rented house. Then house-hold items, and the exploration continued. In 2007, I got married, and the Discover found its pillion rider. We made use of this bike to discover all the possible fields including the Real Estate. In a journey of about 5 years, it was my companion in all the journeys. But its engine was gradually decaying, and I preferred to sale it, rather than investing little bit more amount on it. I thought, 115 cc bike is not OK for both of us now, and it is the time to upgrade, so I opted to purchase a 125 cc bike, and that was - Yamaha SS 125. Most stylish family bike. Just like a dress, my Yamaha was taken over as my new identity. I used this bike with utmost care and compassion. Till 2017, the bike was looking like a very very new bike. It never became old. But I decided to change the bike again, and I opted to take a new Suzuki Hayate EP. Thus, once again, my Yamaha went to some other person, who is now the owner of that bike. Journey continues. From all these generations of bikes, I learnt that - we must not be complacent. WE must accept that - we are merely caretakers. Don't run too much behind valuables, but run behind the values. They will stick with you. In all these transformation, leaving a old bike/car was very tough process, as they actually become our identity. But at the same time, acquiring a new bike was quite pleasing. But all these valuables come to us with a rider - that YOU ARE JUST A CARETAKER. Quite Philosophical, Isn't it ? Yes, it is. .
इक्किसवी शताब्दी में "गुरुकुल" जैसा शब्द हिन्दी शब्दकोष का एक शब्द बन कर रह गया है क्योंकि आजकल ना ही गुरुकुल जाकर शिक्षा ग्रहण करने की परंपरा जीवित है और ना ही आजकल के स्कुल और कोलेज तथाकथित "गुरुकुल" से मिलते जुलते हैं. आज के दौर के गुरुकुल और शिक्षाप्रणाली में आधुनिकिकरण के हर संभव आयाम झलकते हैं. और जैसे ही हम तथाकथित गुरुकुल से समाज के आधुनिक दिनचर्या में कदम रखते हैं तो गुरुकुल में सीखे हुए सभी पाठो की पुनःराव्रित्ति का अवसर आता है पर कथनी और करनी में कितना फर्क हो सकता है इसका उदाहरण हम सब रोजमर्रा की ज़िंदगी में स्वयम महसुस करते हैं. मैं इस लेख के जरिये आजकल के शिक्षाप्रणाली पर कोई प्रश्नचिन्ह नही उठाना चाहता हूँ क्योंकि यह अपने आप में एक सम्पुर्ण प्रणाली है पर मेरा लेख हम सबके कार्यप्रणाली और आज के दौर में बढ़ते हुए मानसिक तनाव और प्रताड्ना के झोको से गुजरते मनसपटॅल पर हो रहे प्रतिद्वंद को चित्रित करने का एक छोटा प्रयास है. गुरुकुल के दौर में विद्यार्जन करने के लिए हम सभी को गुरुकुल के अनुशाशन और तौरतरीको को सीखना पड़ता था. और इस शिक्षाप्रणाली का प्राथमिक उद्देश्य एक सजग विद्यार्थी का निरुपण और उसका समाज में समुचित समय में पदार्पण कराना होता था. ऐसे उद्देश्य की प्राप्ति के लिए यह आवश्यक था कि विद्यार्थी को गुरुकुल में हर संभव तरीको से समुचित ज्ञान और उसके सदुपयोग करने की दिशा में अग्रसर किया जाए. इसी लिए गुरुकुल से जुड़े हुए प्राथमिक ग्रंथों में एक आदर्श विद्यार्थी को परिभाषित करने के लिए कहा गया है - "काक चेष्टा, बको ध्यानं, श्वान निद्रा तेथैव्चा अल्पहारी, गृहत्यागी विद्यार्थी पञ्च लक्षणं”. इस श्लोक में कहा गया है कि एक आदर्श विद्यार्थी के मुख्यतः पाँच लक्षण होने चाहिये: (1) काक चेष्टा: अर्थात कौवे के जैसा प्रयास. बचपन में हमने एक कौवे की कहानी सुनी थी जिसमे एक कौवा बहुत प्यासा होता है और भटकते भटकते वह एक पानी के मटके के पास पहुंचता है. उस मटके में पानी का स्तर बहुत नीचे होता है और कौवे की चोंच पानी को स्पर्श नही कर पाती. कौवे की प्यास उसे पानी तक पहुंचने के लिए हर संभव प्रयास करने को उकसित कराती है. परन्तु पानी का स्तर इतना नीचा होता है कि कौवा चाहकर भी पानी तक नही पहुंच पाता. फिर कौवा धीरे धीरे मटके के आस पास पड़े छोटे छोटे कंकडो को अपने चोंच से पकड़ कर उस मटके में डालना चालु करता है. उसके हर प्रयास पर पानी का स्तर बहुत धीरे धीरे ऊपर की ओर बढता जाता है और अंततः कौवे की अथक मेहनत रंग लाती है और पानी का स्तर इतना ऊपर हो जाता है कि वह अपने चोंच से अपनी प्यास बुझा लेता है. सुनने और सुनाने में कौवे की इस कहानी से बहुत कुछ सीखने को मिलता है. शायद गुरुकुल के सन्दर्भ में हर विद्यार्थी "काक चेष्टा" जैसे लक्षण को अपने आप में प्रारुपित करने का प्रयास भी करता है, पर क्या गुरुकुल के बाहर आज हम इस कहानी को भूल रहे हैं ? वास्तविक ज़िंदगी में ऐसे बहुत अवसर आते हैं जब हमे हमारा गंतव्य स्थल और वहा जाने का मार्ग साफ साफ दिखता है पर हम सभी शोर्ट-कट (सरल उपाय) की खोज करते हैं. सरल उपाय खोजने में कोई गलती नही है, पर क्या हम कठिन प्रयास करने से दुर नही जा रहे हैं ? गुरुकुल में सीखे हुए सभी उपदेश हमे निजी दिनचर्या और रोजमर्रा की ज़िंदगी में अपनाने चाहिये. किसी कार्य को करने के सौ उपाय हो सकते हैं, उसमें सबसे सरल उपाय को अपनाना सर्वोचित है पर अगर बात प्रयास करने की हो, तो निजी ज़िंदगी में हमे उस कौवे की तरह हमेशा तत्पर रहना चाहिये. क्योंकि कौवे की कहानी से इस बात का समावेश होता है कि कठिन परिश्रम और अनवरत प्रयासो से सफलता का प्राप्त होना तय है और इस सफलता को ब्रह्मांड का कोई नियम ग़लत साबित नही कर सकता. (2) बको ध्यानम: अर्थात सारस पक्षी जैसे पैनी नजर. अगर किसी नदी या तालाब के आस पास किसी सारस को देखने का अवसर मिलें तो एक अद्भुत नज़ारा दिखता है. सबसे पहले सारस एक ऐसे स्थान का चयन करता है जहाँ वो अपने आप को खड़ा कर सके और पानी में तैरते हुए मछलियो को पकड़ सके. एक बार सारस अपने पैर जमा ले तो एक पैर पर खड़े खड़े वह घंटो तैरते हुए मछलियो को निहारते रहता है. इस दौरान यह बहुत आवश्यक है कि उसकी उपस्थिति का अहसास और भनक मछलियो को ना लगे, इसलिए वह बहुत ही ध्यानमग्न हो कर एक ही आसन में लगातार एक पैर पर खड़े रहता है. जब मछलियो को सारस की गतिविधियाँ सुन्न दिखती हैं तो वे उसके आसपास से निडर हो कर भ्रमण करने लगती है. कभी कभी छोटे मछलियो का झुंड उस सारस के एकदम पास से गुजरता है परन्तु सारस अपने आसन से बिलकुल टस से मस नही होता. सारस का मुख्य उद्देश्य अपने पेट भरने के लिए एक बडी मछली को पकडना होता है इसलिए वह बहुत ही पैनी नजर से उस समय का इंतज़ार करता है जब तक एक बडी मछली उसके पास से नही गुजरती. जैसे ही उसके भूख के अनुरुप एक बडी मछली पास से गुजरती है तो वह एक झपत्ते में उस बडी मछली को पकड़ लेता है. सारस के इस कहानी से हमे यह सीखने को मिलता है कि अगर आपकी नजर पैनी हो और आपका ध्यान आपके सही गंतव्य पर हो तो आपको कोई दुसरी बाधा हत नही कर सकती. रोजमर्रा के दौड-धुप और आफिस के दिन-प्रतिदिन के तनाव भरे जीवन में आज हम इस कहानी को लगभग भूल रहे हैं. दुसरे शब्दों में कहा जाए तो हम सबको सारस की यह कहानी तो याद है, पर उससे लेने वाले सीख को हम भूल रहे हैं. अगर इस कहानी को मैं क्रिकेट के सन्दर्भ में परिभषित करु तो आप सचिन तेंदुलकर के किसी शतकीय पारी का अवलोकन करे. सचिन जैसे महान खिलाडी से एक बात सीखनी चाहिए, कि उनका ध्यान भी किसी सारस से कम नही था. उन्होंने कभी भी मैच में हो रहे अनावश्यक बातो पर ध्यान नही दिया और अपना ध्यान हमेशा गेंदबाज़ के गेंदो पर रखा, और जैसे ही कोई कमज़ोर गेंद का सामना हुआ तो उन्होंने अपने बल्ले से उस पर तेज़ प्रहार किया और ज़रुरी रन बटोरे. इसके लिए यह बहुत ज़रुरी है कि छोटे छोटे अनावश्यक विषय हमारे मार्ग में बाधा ना पहुँचा सके. और ऐसा करने के लिए, हमे छोटे छोटे समस्याओ से अपने मन को भ्रमित नही करना चाहिये. अगर हम अपना मन स्थिर होकर एक बडी समस्या के निरावरण पर केंद्रित करे तो हमे सफलता पाने से कोई नही रोक सकता और इसके लिए ज़रुरी है कि हम हमेशा "बको ध्यानम" वाले गुरुकुल के अध्याय को अपनी ज़िंदगी में ना केवल याद रखे बल्कि अपने मार्ग में इसका प्रतिरुपण भी करे और सफलता की तरफ़ अग्रसर हो. (3) श्वान निद्रा: अर्थात श्वान (कुत्ते) के जैसी नींद. वैसे तो श्वान को इस जगत् में सबसे ज्यादा वफादार माना जाता है और उसकी निद्रा का उल्लेख अलग अलग सन्दर्भ में किया जाता है. श्वान कितने भी गहरे नींद में क्यों ना हो, वह हमेशा अपने आस पास की गतिविधियो पर पैनी नजर रखता है. अगर श्वान कही पर सो रहा हो और हम एकदम दबे पैर उसके पास से गुजरने का प्रयास करें तो हमे एहसास हो जाता है कि हमारे आने जाने की हर भनक उस श्वान को हो जाती है. श्वान निद्रा से सीखने को मिलता है कि श्वान हमेशा अपने आस पास के वातावरण से सज़ग रहता है और परिस्थितियो के अनुरुप वह तुरंत तत्पर होता है. श्वान निद्रा के बिलकुल विपरीत हिन्दी में एक कहावत है - घोडे बेचकर सोना. कभी कभार हम इतने गहरी नींद में सो जाते हैं कि हमे बिलकुल भी अंदाजा नही होता कि आस पास में क्या हो रहा है. एक आदर्श विद्यार्थी से यह अपेक्षा रखी जाती है कि उसकी निद्रा बिलकुल श्वान निद्रा जैसे हो. आज के सन्दर्भ में श्वान निद्रा का मतलब यह नही है कि आप गहरे नींद में नही सोये, परन्तु इसका वास्तविक अर्थ यह है कि आप सोते समय भी सज़ग रहे. कोई दुश्मन आपकी कमज़ोरी का फायदा नही उठा सके. समाज में हमारी सज़गता से प्राथमिक तात्पर्य यह है कि हम हर प्रकार की परिस्थितियो के लिए अपने आप को मानसिक रुप से तैयार रखे. अगर आपके इर्द गिर्द कोई भी संदेहास्पद गतिविधियाँ हो रही हो तो अपने आप को इससे दुर ना रखे. समाज में होने वाली हर प्रकार की गतिविधियाँ हमारे लिए एक सबब भी है और जिम्मेदारी भी. आज कल हम ऐसे बहुत बातो को अनदेखा कर देते है क्योंकि उससे हमारा सीधासाधा कोई लेना देना नही होता, परन्तु एक आदर्श समाज के स्थापना के लिए यह ज़रूरी है कि गुरुकुल के बाद भी हम सब "श्वान निद्रा" के लक्षणो को अपने आप में जीवित रखे और उसका सर्वदा अनुकरण करे. (4) अल्पहारी: इसका अर्थ है ऐसा व्यक्ति जो अल्प (याने कि कम) आहार (भोजन) से संतुष्टि कर ले. गुरुकुल के दौर में विद्यार्थियो को अपना भोजन स्वयम बनाना पडता था और उनके भोजन पर गुरुजनो की दृष्टि भी होती थी. और गुरुकुल के प्रणाली में अल्पहार ही मुख्य आहार हुआ करता था. आहार के सन्दर्भ में सबसे उचित उद्देश्य यह होना चाहिये कि आप आहार का ग्रहण तभी करे जब आपको भूख लग रही हो. परन्तु आज कल आहार का ग्रहण घडी देख कर किया जाता है, फिर आप भुखे हो या ना हो, अगर आपके आफिस के कैंटीन का समय हो गया हो, तो आपके पैर स्वयम आहार की ओर चल पडते हैं. शायद "अल्पहारी" का लक्षण हम अपने आप में प्रतिरुपित करे तो हमे बार बार चिकित्सक के पास जाने की आवश्यकता नही पडेगी. आज के दौर में अनचाहे पेट, मोटापा और तरह तरह की बीमारीयो का प्राथमिक कारण हमारे खान-पान की आदते हैं. आधुनिक गुरुकुल और समाज़ के सन्दर्भ में इस "अल्पहारी" का तात्पर्य हमें अपने समस्त इंद्रियो पर लगाने की आवश्यकता है. हमेशा अपने भूख के अनुरुप, कम खाए. "अल्पहार" का अर्थ सिर्फ़ अपने पेट से नही लगाना चाहिये, बल्कि अपने पंच इंद्रियो पर नियंत्रण रखे और ज़रूरत से थोड़ा कम ग्रहण करे तो गुरुकुल के इस उपदेश का सच रुप से पालन हो पायेगा. (5) गृहत्यागी: प्राचीन काल के गुरुकुल के सन्दर्भ में "गृहत्यागी" का अर्थ होता था कि विद्यार्थी अपने घर का त्याग कर गुरुकुल में प्रवेश लेता था. और जब उसे अपना घर छोडना पडता था तो उसे घर के साथ साथ अपने माता-पिता से दुर जाना पडता था और इस लक्षण को ग्रहण करने के लिए विद्यार्थी को अपने घर के समस्त सुख-सुविधाओ का त्याग करना पडता था. ऐसा करने पर विद्यार्थी को ऐसी परिस्थितियो से गुजरना पडता था जहाँ उसे घर के जैसे अनुकुल वातावरण से परे रहना पड़े.
आज के सन्दर्भ में यह आवश्यक नही है कि विद्यार्थी को शिक्षाग्रहण करने के लिए अपना घर छोडना पड़े क्योंकि स्कुल में 24 घंटो का कार्यकाल नही होता, इसलिए "गृहत्यागी" का वास्तविक तात्पर्य इस बात से लगाना चाहिये कि क्या विद्यार्थी अपने कोम्फोर्ट ज़ोन (अनुकुल वातावरण) के दायरे के बाहर काम करने को तत्पर है ? गुरुकुल के बाद के दौर में, हर समाज़िक प्राणी हमेशा अपने अनुकुल वातावरण के आस पास ही रहना पसंद करता है. हर एक प्राणी चाहता है कि उसे अपने घर (या गृहस्थली) के आस पास ही नौकरी मिलें. चलिए नौकरी मिल जाए तो भी, वह ऐसा काम करना चाहता है जहाँ उसे सरलता लगे और सुख की प्राप्ति हो. इस सन्दर्भ में हम सभी "गृहत्यागी" के लक्षण के विपरीत "गृहनिवासी" के लक्षण को अपना रहे हैं. अगर सफलता के मार्ग में कांटे हो तो हम उस मार्ग में चलने के बजाय एक ऐसे मार्ग का अनुसरण करते हैं जहाँ राह में रोडे कम हो. "काक चेष्टा, बको ध्यानं, श्वान निद्रा तेथैव्चा अल्पहारी, गृहत्यागी विद्यार्थी पञ्च लक्षणं”. इस श्लोक के अनुसार एक आदर्श विद्यार्थी के पाँच लक्षणो का विस्तृत में व्यख्यान किया गया है, परन्तु क्या यह सच नही है कि गुरुकुल में सीखे हुए सारे गुरो का हम अपने निज़ी ज़िंदगी में पालन करे ? फिर ऐसा क्यों होता है कि शिक्षार्जन का अध्याय होते ही हम इन पाँच लक्षणो का पालन नही कर पाते ? शायद इसलिए कि शिक्षाप्रणाली के अनुरुप एक विद्यार्थी की परिभाषा केवल स्कुल तक ही सीमित रहती है. लेकिन वास्तविकता यह है कि ज़िंदगी में आने वाला हर एक पल, हर एक दिन, हर एक नया अध्याय हमे कुछ ना कुछ सिखने के लिए अवसर प्रदान करता है. भले ही शिक्षाप्रणाली या गुरुकुल के नियमो के अधीन हम विद्यार्थी रहे या ना रहे, पर जब तक हमारा जज्बा सीखने के लिए तत्पर रहे, हम अपने उम्र से लड सकते हैं. कोई इंसान इसलिए बुजुर्ग नही हो जाता कि उसकी आयु बढ रही है, पर वह इंसान लिए बुजुर्ग हो जाता है क्योंकि उसके सीखने की तत्परता कम होने लगती है. पत्थर को तराश कर जो इंसान मूर्ति बनाता है, उसे देख कर मुझे अहसास होता है कि उसने भले ही शिक्षार्जन किया हो या ना किया हो, पर उसमे आज भी "काकचेष्टा" के समस्त गुण मौजूद हैं क्योंकि मूर्ति बनाने के लिए कोई भी शोर्ट-कट नही होता. उसी प्रकार, इमारत को बनाने वाला मज़दुर जब आपस में इंट जोड़ कर दिवार का निर्माण करते हैं, तो उसका ध्यान मुझे "बकोध्यानम" के लक्षण को याद दिलाता है, क्योंकि खुले आसमान में मौसम के गर्म/ठंडे थपेडो और विपरीत वातावरण के बावज़ुद उसका ध्यान उसके काम पर ही होता है. देश के सीमाओ की रक्षा करते सैन्यबल के जवान चाहे दिन हो या रात, अपनी चुस्त और सज़ग नजर से मुझे "श्वान निद्रा" जैसे जटिल लक्षण की याद दिलाते हैं. "अल्पहारी" जैसे लक्षण के लिए अनुशासन का होना बहुत ज़रूरी है और इसके लिए कोई विशेष विद्या अर्जन कि आवश्यकता नही होती क्योंकि ऐसा कहा जाता है कि आपकी भौतिक उंचाइ (हाइट) भगवान की देन है परन्तु आपका पेट आपकी स्वयम निर्मित देन है जिसे आप कम भी कर सकते हैं और ज्यादा भी कर सकते हैं. "गृहत्यागी" जैसे लक्षण के लिए सर्वप्रथम यह आवश्यक है कि हम अपने मानसिक विचारधारा को विपरीत परिस्थितियो में भी अपने नियंत्रण में रखे क्योंकि अनुकुल परिस्थितियो में तो कोई भी सफल हो सकता है पर जीवन की असली परीक्षा तो विपरीत वातावरण में ही होती है. Once upon a time, there was a Cherokee grandfather (or Navajo grandfather), who told his grandson,
“Grandson, there are two wolves inside of me. One wolf is white, good and altruistic, generous and kind, and the other wolf is black, mean and greedy, violent and angry. The two wolves are in a constant fight within me.” The grandson, with wide eyes, says, “But which one will win, grandpa?” And the grandfather says (there is usually a deliberate pause here for effect before delivering the spiritual punchline – wait for it), “The one which I feed.” It was my colleague TP Das's PhD Open Defense at Department of Physics, CUSAT, Cochin. Dr. P. Sreekumar (Director, IIA) was Chief Examiner, while Dr. Anil Bhardwaj (Thesis Supervisor, Director, PRL), Dr. Radhika Ramachandran (Director, SPL) and Dr. K. Rajeev were among other renowned attendees. I wanted to attend this function, so I firstly made my mind to be ready for bike ride. 1. Very first, I checked weather forecast enroute for 24 October. It appeared clear, so i worked out distance. 2. It was about 215 kms one sided ride, so i started bit early around 04 am itself. I made it to CUSAT by 0945 am after 2 prolonged breaks. Maximum dedlay was in Ernakulam traffic and google search for CUSAT. 3. Return journey was very very long 0230 pm to 0800 pm, mostly due to multiple traffic jams. overall 450 km it was superb bike ride. here, i am sharing some snaps. SUMMARY:In our busy life span, we meet persons, make friends, share our emotions and continue our travel as part of the so-called life-cycle. On 1st of October 2017, my schoolmates planned for a reunion of all friends who had cleared their 12th Std. Schooling in the year 1991-1992 and about 40 students gathered at Bhilai for re-cherishing our sweet memories of the school days. I too was fortunate enough to participate in this social gathering of “REUNION OF BSP HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL 1991-1992 BATCH”. I am herewith presenting my experience in this most memorable trip to Bhilai as a long story cum Travelogue. I do believe that – even though this reunion was very much limited to my school-mates and friends, the outcome of this trip would surely benefit the readers and will give them a positive energy. WHERE IS YOUR HOME-TOWN ? Quite often, I come across a very very common, yet a strange question all across our societal talks, i.e., “WHERE IS YOUR HOME-TOWN ?”. Let me explain first, why do I think this question as a strange question. The verbal meaning of this question is – where is your home ? Or, let us know the name of the town, where your parental home exists. But in my case (and probably in many of your case as well), I end up with strange answers. My father was born and brought up in Machillipatnam (Andhra Pradesh, mother tongue: Telugu) and migrated to Madhya Pradesh (Now, Chhattisagarh) in search of job in late 1960s. He got a decent job in Bhilai Steel Plant and preferred to settle down in Bhilai for pursuing his rest of the career and spend his whole life in Bhilai. It was also the place, where he took his last breath in 2004. My mother was a Telugu lady born and brought up in Jeypore (Orissa). Even though, my mother’s mother tongue was Telugu, but as she was born and brought up Orissa, she had reasonably good hold in Oriya language as well. She got married to my father and obviously both of them got well-settled in Bhilai. For both of them, Bhilai (and nearby cities of Chhattisagarh) was one place where they spent maximum proportion of their lifetime. Still, going by the definition of the so-called “HOME-TOWN”, their hometowns should be Machillipatnam and Jeypore respectively. Well, whatever may be the right or wrong answer, the first and foremost lesson that can be learnt from the above discussion is - “Will a person be having more love and affection to his/her home-town of a place, where they are destined for a longer period of life ?”. I leave this question to the readers to decide, what should be the answer. Having said that, now I will move ahead to describe the actual part of my story, i.e., a revisit to my home-town – DALLI RAJHARA. A SMALL TRAIN JOURNEY, WORTH MILLIONS ... Dalli Rajhara is a small township located at 20.58°N 81.08°E in District Balod of Chhattisagarh (earlier it was part of District Durg, Madhya Pradesh). This town is home of iron ore captive mines for Bhilai Steel Plant, the largest integrated steel plant in India. It is about 85 kms away from Durg/Bhilai twin cities and may be about 125 kms away from Raipur (the nearest airport, capictal city of Chhattisagarh). It is connected (I won’t say – well connected) to other cities of Chhattisagarh through road. Dalli Rajhara has a very small railway station (station code: DRZ) with just two platforms and lacks basic infrastructure. The only passenger train that connects this railway station to other big cities is Durg – Dalli Rajhara train. To the best of my knolwledge, there is still a single train from Durg to Dalli Rajhara. It goes up/down twice a day or so. And the name of small villages within this railway route are quite interesting. Let me recollect from my childhood memories: Dalli Rajhara → Chikhalkasa → Kusumkasa → Balod → Latabor → Sikosa → Gunderdehi → Risama → Maroda → Durg. These names may sound bit funny but let me assure you that the rail journey from Dalli Rajhara to Durg is probably one of the most interesting journeys, you may ever get to enjoy. During my childhood days, the rail engine in this route used to be a Coal Engine, and its black plume will turn your eyes red, and your good looking white dresses may end up as dirty brown/blackish after the completion of about 2.5 to 3 hours train journey. Overall, there used to be 4 bogies excluding the guard bogie. Balod was kind of intermittent station, where the Coal Engine used to fill water from the top. As a small child, I was always astonished to visit the Coal Engine from nearby, but always had fear that - the so-called black color Coal Engine is actually very hot. Or that is what was told to me by my parents, and I used to keep away from this engine. As its functional requirements, this Coal Engine used to release clutch or so, leaving a very scary and extremely noisy sound and smoke from its belly near the wheels and I was too scared to notice it from nearby. Balod…, the intermittent station, yes, it was very famous. Why ? There used to be a famous SAMOSA shop in this railway station. And the logic of the stay in this station was simple. The so-called station master/guard of this station will not show green signal, unless and until all the SAMOSAS are consumed by the passengers. Quite funny, right.....still it was the fact. Maroda station was again famous, because the engine used to change the direction here. So if you were moving in forward direction till this station, you will start moving backward from this station. All the bogies were almost uniform, without any reservations. Sometimes, the journey of about 85 kms will consume 2.5 hours and on the other odd days, it would take even 3.5 hours or more, but the passengers onboard were always patient, friendly and understanding. Probably, the speed of life cycle in small cities is not so fast as it is apparently felt in metropolitan cities like Mumbai or semi-metropolitan city like Thiruvananthapuram. In a rail bogie of about 72 seats capacity, almost all passengers were known to each other by some means or others. Now, the readers may be getting bored by my description of this train journey, but I have a point to make. Is the time of 24 hours is a day for us in different from the 24 hours of the passengers travelling in this train ? The passengers travelling in this train are habituated to share all the societal (necessary and unnecessary episodes) and happenings all around with each other. Probably, they prefer to give more weightage to sharing and caring of emotions, rather than bothering too much about time. Now, my question is – in the process of time-bound official/domestic activities, targets, achievements, earning, mobiles, facebook, whatsapp, twitter, so and so, are we also running away from the true emotions and relations, which is/must be an integral part of our own identity ? Let me, once again leave the answer of this question to the audience to decide. Nonetheless, I will surely put forward my own views at the end. MY PRIMARY SCHOOL, WHERE I STARTED MY STUDIES…. Even though, Dalli Rajhara has some basic necessary infrastructure, but it lacks very good medical facilities and hospitals. Bhilai Steel Plant, Sector – 9 Hospital was/is the nearest biggest hospital with reasonably good facilities to Dalli Rajhara. Myself and my two senior siblings were also born and brought up in this hospital. Since my birth, I was brought up in the small city of Dalli Rajhara, the Golden town. I call this city as the city of friends, city of friendship, city of togetherness. I started my primary education from this city and continued my studies till graduation in the same city. During my childhood, this small city had a heritage of good quality schools. There were so many schools in this district that once one of the local leaders even narrated that the acronym BSP (Bhilai Steel Plant) can be also used for Bhilai School Plant. Within my home-town, Dalli Rajhara, there were few renowned schools. To name a few: BSP HSS No. 1, BSP HSS No. 2, BSP HSS No. 3, BSP Primary School No. 6, BSP Primary School No. 28, Nirmala School and BSP Senior Secondary School. In each of these schools, there used to be two shifts - (1) Morning shift 0700 am - 1200 noon; (2) Noon shift 1200 noon - 0500 pm. Among the two famous primary schools, BSP PS No. 28 was close to Officers Colony, whereas BSP PS No. 6 was in the heart of the city. I am a proud student of BSP PS No. 28. We had a Ganesh Temple close to our school, where we were frequent visitors for grabbing Prasadam. During examination period, our frequency of visits were more often in anticipation of good results. This school was full of activities from morning 07 am to evening 05 pm with good amount of students in the early 1980s and even up to 1990s. I completed my primary eductation (Std. 5) in the year 1984 and left the BSP PS No. 28 forever, but the memories never left me. They stayed with me all the times. All sweet memories, and sweet memories alone. Almost after 33 years, I re-visited my BSP PS No. 28 in 2017. Those days, just at the entrace of our school, we used to have two ladies sitting on left and right entrance of the gate, selling some silly items such as: chana, murra, and even chewing-gum. These items used to be seasonal and the maximum price of any item was merely 5 to 10 paise. Alas, I could not find them any more now in front of our school. Our school is no more the same school now. With the passage of time, advancement in township management, rise and fall, this school is now converted as a Guest House. Now, we don’t have any school bell in front of the main gate, there is no more the famous black-board where our Principal used to address us during 15th August and 26th January kind of functions. This place is now merely a Guest House, and I may have to forcefully remind the residents of this Guest House that once upon a time, I studied here. A few tears fell down from my eyes by seeing my school being converted to a Guest House. But, it taught me a very famous and hard lesson of the Bhagavath Geetha - “YOU CAME HERE EMPTY HANDED, AND YOU WILL LEAVE EMPTY HANDED. WHAT IS YOURS TODAY BELONGED TO SOMEONE ELSE YESTERDAY, AND WILL BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE TOMORROW”. STUDY AND CRICKET: THAT WAS MY LIFE THOSE DAYS…. There was another primary school, namely – BSP Primary School No. 6, quite close to my residence, and also in the heart of city. I have very strong affection to this school as well, but for somewhat different reasons. I never studied in this school, but this school had a very big cricket ground. The plain and sturdy ground was available for play in all the seasons, whether it is raining or dry, we used to play cricket in this ground al the twelve months. Through out my stay in Dalli Rajhara, I enjoyed playing cricket in this ground. We had pretty big team with more than 20 active members. At sharp 04 PM, we used to start our cricket match and it used to continue till evening 0630 PM or so, or till the sunlight is not good enough to continue the match. A very disciplined cricket team indeed. Our team was famous for discipline and sharp throws, the famous – Great Progressive Group (GPG) Team. I was almost a founder member of this team and have lot of memories from this ground. There are still a few members of this GPG team in and around Dalli Rajhara. When my school-mates planned for a reunion almost after 26 years after our schooling, I was quite excited that I will be able to visit my school, cricket ground and re-cherish my old memories. But the BSP PS No. 6 is also changed a lot now. It is taken over by some other authorities and the cricket matches don’t take place in our ground any more. I could not even go inside my favourite cricket ground. Just, I managed to take a snapshot of this cricket ground from the gate of this school in night. In a time-frame of about 30 years, so many things have changed. During our schooling, if any teammate was delayed even by one minute after the first match is started, he had to wait till the completion of full match as a disciplinary punishment. But now, there is no such rule. The ground itself is closed, and none of my teammates could make it to this ground to play cricket once again. A kind of expected outcome. Though, I was excited to see my cricket ground once again after 3 decades, but it taught me yet another hard lesson - “WE ALL ARE TRAVELING IN THIS LIFE. NEITHER THE BOGIE IS PERMANENTLY YOURS, NOR THE CO-PASSENGERS WILL CONTINUE THEIR JOURNEY WITH YOU TILL THE END OF LIFE. ONCE THE RIGHT TIME AND PROPER STOP COMES, YOU WILL HAVE TO DERAIL FROM THE BOGIE AND YOU MAY HAVE LEAVE YOUR CO-PASSENGERS AS SUCH. SOMETIMES, SOME CO-PASSENGERS MAY DEPART BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE BOGIE. JUST BE THE PART OF JOURNEY, AND ENJOY THE JOURNEY. LET’S REMEMBER THAT DESTINATION IS IN GOD’S HAND, AND WE CAN ONLY TRAVEL….SO TRAVEL AS LONG AS DESTINATION IS NOT REACHED”. IMPACT OF THREE DECADES ON MY PAST RESIDENCE... While, I mentioned about my primary education, let me also add up here about my two residences where I spent more than 90% of my stay in Dalli Rajhara. One residence was BSP Quarters, just opposite to Hospital while the second residence was behind Cooperative Society. In my early childhood, I spent my maximum time in first residence. The stair-case steps were the noisy play ground for all the kids residing in this block. During summer holidays, we used to have a good collection of hindi comics and we used to read these comics just sitting in the staircase. The mango trees in the ground floor was the boon to us in sunny noontime. But, now the so-called homes have turned to be merely a building. Situation was no more different for my second residence either. In total, there were a total of 10 shopping cum residential plots in our complex. Starting from my residence in one corner to the extreme last shop in the other corner, we all were just one single family. All societal functions such as Deepavali, Holi and other events were conducted in unity by taking all the ten residents as a single entity. But almost after two and half decades, when I revisited this complex, I could not recognize my own residence. The time-frame of 25 years has changed the shopping complex completely. In those days, no two adjoining shops had any boundary walls. There was just a virtual wall, called the wall of understanding. Whether its my residence or my neighbour, we were escorting all residenents in an united fashion. There were good interactions of sweets and food items during festive season. But, the present status of this shopping complex is quite different. All the shops have got their own individual boundary walls. They have good lock escorting their own shops. Apparently, the mutual interactions between two adjoining neighbours can be well-understood from the boundary walls. The status of my two past residences have posed few strong questions to me – Has the time imposed a selfish mentality in our liveliwood ? Have we all turned too much self-centered over the years ? Why the neighbours in our society are turning to be a group of people who should not mingle with our understanding and way of life ? Living in a semi-metropolitan city like Thiruvananthapuram, that too in an apartment for the past six to seven years, I don’t think the situation is too different in my present place either. Neighbours don’t know the names of adjoining apartment owners. Kids don’t have a united field games like cricket or football or kites or goti or gilli danda. I can still recollect that there was hardly a single black and white Television in the entire block of my first residence, and on Sundays, almost 30 to 40 residents used to gather altogher in front of that B/W TV for witnessing an old hindi movie. That was only the entertainment available to us, that too only once a week. And now, some of us have more than one TV in our residence, with more than 100s of channels to search for entertainment, and still we are confused to choose a proper one. A commercial break of less than 2 minutes has become intolerable now. We don’t have time. We can’t waste our time any more, and are in process of searching for the proper entertainment. During the commercial breaks of TV, our eyes will be consistently looking for the new whatsapp/facebook messages on our mobiles, as we really don’t have time. Quite strange, right ? A strange question pops up right in front of my eyes: Are we chasing the time, Or is the time chasing us ? Fact is: we are runing, running and continuosly running…., sometimes even without knowing the destiny. Isn’t it ? OUR VICE-PRINCIPAL, THE CHIEF GUEST OF OUR REUNION ... Myself, Our Vice-Principal Shri Gani Sir, and my colleagues Nasiruddin Malik and Arun Kumar Bera in Sector 9 Hospital, Bhilai. Though our Sir could not recognize us by our names, but was proud that we remember him till date and our visit to him surely gave him pathway for speedy recovery. A teacher is not merely a person, but a root of a tree, and plays a pivotal role in building of a career of not only a single student, but the entire society. We are very proud of having a discipline-loving Sir. May God give him enough strength to recover at the earliest. Well, that was something about my residential places. Moving to my next destiny, i.e., my higher secondary school. I was admitted to BSP Higher Secondary School No. 2 in 1985 and I stayed in this school for 7 years starting from Std. XI to Std. XII. It was indeed a temple for us. A U-shape, three-storied big building, a memorable place for all the students who completed their education here. We had a very strict Principal and equally tough Vice-Principal, known for their Discipline, Rules and Regulations. Almost after a period of 25 years, when I reached Bhilai for my schoolmates reunion, I was told that my Vice-Principal of BSP HSS No. 2 is not maintaining good health is now admitted in Sector 9 Hospital, the very same hospital where I was born. I felt quite sad, and rushed directly to Sector 9 Hospital with my school-mates who had come to receive me from Raipur Airport. We met our Vice Principal in the Sector 9 Hospital. It was quite emotional moment for all of us. Our Sir has surely become quite weak in health and is undergoing treatment in the Chest Ward. We paid our sincere gratitude to our Sir and wished for a speedy recovery for him. My entire journey to my home-town was centered around the school-mates reunion, and our Vice-Principal was supposed to be the Chief Guest, but given his physical conditions, we had to compromise and manage with rest of the available teachers. While I was leaving the hospital, it was clear to me that – Time is one element in life, which will never come back. It goes at its own pace and teaches us several lessons. Our teachers are probably the best mentors who spend all their life in making their students a good human. Some of us follow them, while others don’t …. For many of us, there will be a single teacher, but for them, we are many. Despite that, they spend their valuable time in assessing each one of us individually and trying their level best to improve our standards. It may be true that, not all the teachers are good, but the profession of teachership is probably the best and God-gifted profession, which is directly linked with the development of an honest and pure society. My kudos to all the teachers. MY BSP HSS SCHOOL NO. 2: A REVISIT TO TEMPLE Having met our Vice-Principal in Hospital, we subsequently proceeded to our own school, i.e., BSP HSS No. 2, Dalli Rajhara. It was a holiday - 2nd October 2017. But my friends have taken aprior permission from the Principal of this School to let us enter the school on holiday. Thanks to my friends and also to the current Principal for his positive gestures by allowing us to enter our school premises on a holiday. Our higher secondary school was looking more glamorous than actually it used to be in early 1990s. However, the walls have started showing few cracks. Even the number of students studying this school have drastically come down. May be three decades back, there was a tough competition to get entrance to this school, and we had two shifts (morning and noon) to accommodate all the students. Morning prayers were done in the middle of the U-shaped building and during the rainy days, we were not given any relaxation, and the prayers were conducted in the long corridoors of the school. Surely, I felt sad that – my school is loosing charm, and I asked a question to myself - “Why is it that – my school is turning OLD and loosing its charm ?”. After a careful thinking, I came to a conclusion that – Dalli Rajhara is a township and a majority of youngsters (including me) have preferred to migrate to better places in search of higher education and better jobs, and have left beyond the so-called schools and their fate to their own destiny. We are proud students of this school, but we also need to admit that – no school, city or society can remain untouched with the disease of betterment. And in such scenario, an inclusive growth is only the probable solution. FROM SCHOOLING TO COLLEGE DAYS... Entrance Gate of Govt. Nemi Chand Jain Arts, Commerce and Science College, Dalli Rajhara. In the early 1990s, this college never had any gate, and we were just free birds to roam around its premises. With good investment in the infrastructure, now my graduation college has got a good-looking gate and also a security guard. With my school-mates, finally I decided to pay a flying visit to my graduation college, namely – Govt. Nemi Chand Jain Arts, Commerece and Science College. Its name was/is so big that, we often used to ask the exact name of our own college to juniors during the jovial ragging. It was quite a small college with average strength of about 300 students or so. This college was situated quite away from the main city, probably to keep the college life away from city life. The college had quite interesting elevated topography and three different blocks for science, arts and commerce respectively. It has no entrance gate at all, and we used to roam around our campus without any fear or affair. The concept of love-affairs was not so popular those days, and the so-called co-ed college had pretty decent students. Moreover, this was only the available college within the city, so majority of students who preferred to stay in the city, would join this college. It was limited to graduation studies in the science stream, whereas post-graduation course were available for Arts stream. I happen to visit this college on a holiday, so I could not even enter the college premises, and took few snapshots of my college. Even though, I have/had good affinity to this college, but I did not miss too much in this complex. I spent just three years in this college and shared good amount of my time in studies and studies. It was also the place where I started interacting with my fellow colleagues (boys as well as girls). Even during the college days, cricket remained as one of my favourite hobbies. The closed entrance gate of this college left a few questions on my face: If you have changed, I too have changed a bit ? You have gone away from me, so I too have made my own boundaries. Its a hard fact that, none of the schools, colleges, offices or residential places are our permanent owned places. But, we make relations with the so-called in-animate objects. The blackboard, the benches, the cycle stand, the TEA shop, the owner of the shops, our well-behaved old peon, and so on. The list will go on, but none of them stays with us forever. All are bound to their own destinies. We too are not permanent in this life. One day, we all will have to go. From my revisit to my home-town, I learned many important lessons of the life. I could re-cherish my childhood memories, and the bottom line is - In the process of this long journey, if we can help anybody at any juncture, those emotions will be stored once and for all in permanent memory. The buildings, roads, trees will come and go, but your value in this life will never be weighed by the capital that you earn or save, but it would be measured by the good deeds you do to the society. If somebody can still recognize you in a city after a period of 25 years, surely those activities will fetch your name and fame. And probably the best way to receive is to give. Give whatever you have, and you will receive whatever you need.
My sincere and heartfelt thanks to all the readers for their patience in reading my travelogue. How will you feel, if you have not visited a city/place for about 25 years, And God gives you an opportunity to visit it again ?
Surely, you all may have some sweet/sour memories of almost all the cities that you have lived in. Some cities are left behind, but come back in our life cycle, and majority of us will agree with me that - we will prefer to visit back the places that we have left behind. Dalli Rajhara: I can call it as a small city, not very big in area, not very big in infrastructure, not very excellent for tourism, but it has something very very big. Whats that ? Its the heart of people who lived in here. The people of Dalli Rajhara are born sweet, brought up in atmosphere of sweetness, togetherness and nurtured in blood of pure friendship. The people around this city have ample of time to invest in friendship. They will join you for all small nitty-gitty things. Even a small plant leave cannot be replaced in this city without knowledge of the complete society. You just name a person, and take it from me - every small, medium age, and old age people will know about the person. I was fortunate enough to spend more than two decades in this city - Dalli Rajhara, the city of iron ore. Its about 80-85 kms away from Durg/Bhilai. To the best of my knolwledge, there is still a single train from Durg to Dalli Rajhara. It goes up/down twice a day or so. And the name of small villages within this railway line is very interesting. Let me recollect from my childhood memories: Dalli Rajhara Chikhalkasa Kusumkasa Balod Latabor Gunderdehi Maroda Durg The rail journey from Dalli Rajhara to Durg is probably one of the most interesting journeys, you may ever get to enjoy. In my childhood days, the rail engine used to be Coal Engine which require plenty of coal, and its black plume will turn your eyes red, and white clothes pretty brown/blackish after the journey. Overall, there used to be 4 bogies excluding the guard bogie. Balod was kind of intermittent station, where the rail engine used to fill water from the top. As a child, I was always astonished to visit the engine from nearby, but always had fear that - the so-called black color engine is actually very hot. Or that is what was told to me by my parents, and I used to keep away from this engine. In between, it used to release clutch or so, which will make extremely noisy sound, and I used to run away miles apart. Balod...yes, it was very famous. Why ? There used to be a famous SAMOSA shop in this railway station. And the logic of the stay in this station was simple. The so-called station master/guard of this station will not show green signal, unless and until all the samosas are consumed by the passengers. Quite funny, right.....still it was the fact. Maroda station was again famous, because the engine used to change the direction here. So if you were moving in forward direction till this station, you will start moving backward from this station. A common terminology for Polytechnique and other college going student was - WITHOUT TICKET. In early 1980s or so, the price of Dalli Rajhara-Durg ticket was less than a rupee, but still the youngsters used to travel without ticket. I too did it once, but that was my first and last journey without ticket. I was quite feared in doing WITHOUT TICKET. Well, once upon a time, this small city was a heritage of schools. There were so many schools in this city. To name a few: BSP Higher Secondary School No. 1, 2 and 3. Primary School No. 28 and 6 were another two famous schools. Nirmala School and Senior Secondary School were another two famous schools. Those who were born in 70-80 generation will know the hierarchy of these schools. In each of these schools, there used to be two shifts - (1) Morning shift 0700 am - 1200 noon; (2) Noon shift 1200 noon - 0500 pm. And in hindi, we used to tease each other as : Subah wale Sundar Barah baje wale Bandar I recollect some more hindi sayings.. Chikani Mundi Chane kaa daal, Maaro juuta ud gaye baal. Well, thats something about morning and noon shift. Among the two famous primary schools, school no. 28 was close to Officers Colony. Just nearby, there was a Ganesh Temple on somewhat top mountain. During exam time, school girls of 28 no. school used to offer bananas (school tiffin) to God praying that - Bhagwaan, is baar bus maths nikaal do. I was/am a product of this school. Rather, let me admit, I am a proud student of this school. Shri Thakur Sir was my first primary school teacher. During my visit, I am told that - he is no more. Quite sad. But this is part of life. There was another school no. 6. It was almost in the heart of city, close to Post Office and Ram Mandir. Ram Mandir was built later. I have affection to both the schools like anything. I never studied in school no. 6 (except for a week or so, when we all students of school no. 28 were put in this school during some renovation of 28 no. school). My affection with school no. 6 is due to its cricket ground. Famous cricket ground. You can play cricket 12 months here. Whether its raining or chilled weather, the brown/red color ground permits us to play cricket all the times. Through out my stay, I enjoyed cricket here. We had very very famous team : GPG. Abbreviation of GPG was - Great Progressive Group. My friend knows the other full form. I won't reveal it here. Another rival team was Moonlight team. I still recollect the golden days of cricket. We were famous for discipline, direct throws. First time flood light match was quite memorable. We used to hit sixers to Ram Mandir. Sharp 04 pm, we used to start our cricket, which used to go till 0630 pm or so. After all the matches are over, we used to have strategic discussion on - what went wrong, who played bad etc. etc. Full politics. There was a senior secondary school. Presumably, the students studying here were considered to be english-speaking, intelligent and above school no. 6 and 28. Well, whatever, there were three more schools. School no. 1, 2 and 3. BSP HSS No. 1 was in Pander Dalli, School No. 2 was in city, close to cooperative society while School No. 3 was in camp. There was a private school - Nirmala School. In fact, Nirmala Sector itself was on its name. Shahid School was yet another school to mention. If there is any strike, we used to get holidays, and it was most memorable for us. All the schools, societal elements, good, bad and all kind of persons were attached to each other through a biggest possible event, known as Football matches. Dalli Rajhara used to host national level football matches, and we used to get tickets in schools at subsidized rates. Special privileges were given to BSP employees. Once, you have completed schoolings, we had a single college, i.e., Govt. Nemi Chand Jain Arts, Commerce and Science College. Often the full form of this college was asked to junior students during ragging. Starting from Hospital Sector, Nirmala Sector, Pander Dalli, Andhra Samiti, Utkal Samiti, ZE Office, Market, Bus Stand, Railway Sector, Camp.....the city was spread across length and breadth but the society was united. Those who stayed in my childhood can very well recollect the very very famous event of a person (Jogi***** Bhaiyaa) hitting a person with knife in front of hospital. It was block no. 1, famous as Russian block. A tileted Puliya was in front of this block. My childhood was spend in 3F/3A. After retirement, we moved to Lakshmi Typewriting Institute, BSP Shopping Complex, Behind Cooperative Society. In this home, we were fortunate enough to grab Yadav Uncle's famous samosas. He use to carry samosas to Open Air theatre where badminton, carrom, table tennis kind of plays were held. But we used to grab hot hot samosas intermittently. His chutney was fully famous in Rajhara. Andhra Samiti, Utkal Samiti, Fataka Bazaar were some more famous landmarks near to this home. Just behind this home, we used to have famous famous NISHAD CHAT BHANDAAR. Those who have tasted CHAT and PANIPURI of this shop will never like Mumbai Chat stalls. INTUC Office was yet another landmark behind our shop. RAJHARA BABA, MAHAMAYA, JHALMALA, BORDIE DAM....the list can go on. For tourists, these places may sound nothing, but those who spent their life in Dalli Rajhara will never forget these places. If a boy is behind a girl, the news used to spread faster than internet and aajtak in Dalli Rajhara. Which love affair is fructifying, and which love affair is going in wrong direction, everything was known to everybody in this city. One of the saddest event that took place in this area was - Murder of very very famous leader SHANKAR GUHA NIYOGI. He was a true leader. I happen to leave this city in 1994 after completing my B.Sc from Govt NCJ college. Somehow, I could never visit this place again till I made it again in 2017. My sincere thanks to my friends Arun Kumar Bera, Nasiruddin Malik, Sanjay Kumar Pandey, Surendra Tripathi, Manoj Kumar Gupta, Atendra Srivastava (to name a few, sorry if I forgot some names, extremely sorry). My wish was to re-visit this city as part of reunion. My dream came true on 1-2 October night. After successful completion of school reunion, myself with my friends travelled to Dalli Rajhara. On the way, in Gunderdehi - I was offered world class KALAKAND and TEA. Worth remembering. We checked in Dalli Rajhara around 1130 PM in Chatkaare Hotel. Excellent food and affection. We all stayed together close to Sapna Medical. Our friend Pandey jee preferred to get the food packed at 1130 PM, rather than having it at Chatkaare. 2nd October is supposed to be dry day, but intentions were clear. He wanted to have drinks. No problems. From 12 night to early morning 0330, he continued his drinks without disturbing anybody. Myself and Nasiruddin gave him a dry company being with him. He enjoyed his drinks, while we enjoyed talks. We recollected so many old events. Had time stopped then and there, we would have continued till next week. But we slept in same room at 0330 AM. Strangely, I got up at 0530 AM itself, as I was very very excited to see my old home, school etc. Thanks to Arun Kumar Bera, who gave a night drive to me at 1200 and shown all the famous places in night itself. 2nd October morning, myself, Nasiruddin and Arun went in a two-wheeler for a short ride. We visited our school no. 28 and many other places. Fun was unlimited. I can keep writing, but will take a break now. Though everything went fine, but I missed our cricket team. I could not play cricket again in school no. 6. I will regret it forever, but what to do ? It has boundary wall and gate, which was not there in our childhood time. When I left Dalli Rajhara, I was sad. Sad because, it is no more the same city that I left behind. Only lesson I took from this trip is - WHATEVER BELONGS TO YOU TODAY, IT WILL BELONG TO SOMEBODY ELSE TOMORROW. NOTHING IS YOURS. WHATEVER YOU GOT HERE, YOU TOOK FROM SOMEBODY AND YOU WILL HAVE TO GIVE IT TO SOMEBODY. My sweet home, which used to be full of crowd around....is now so lonely. Not even the sound of plant leaves is heard here. My favourite school no. 28, where we all kids used to gather in morning. Two small shops run by two ladies were at the school gate who use to sell Chana, Chewing Gum etc. ...Now, we don't find those ladies there. The school is converted to a guest house. Just behind was the Male Urinals (Open field), now it seems to be occupied with some building. My infamous/famous college, where I used to ride my YAMAHA (2258) blindly at the speed of 80, is no more the same college. It has got a big gate now. I could not even enter the college. It was closed. Only I could take a selfie in front of this college. I wanted to enter my class room, but it was not possible. There used to be a samosa shop near college, but I could not find it again. NISHAD CHAT BHANDAR was also not seen. My famous GPS batchmates were not seen around school no. 6. There was no announcement in rickshaw that.....ARORA OPTICALS....BANO BHAIYOO, AAPKE SHAHAR MEN KAL SHAAM ARORA OPTICALS ME AANKHO KE DOCTOR AA RAHE HAIN.... Asha Talkies is not running anymore. The tickets of Rs. 1.60/-; 3.20 and 5.00 are not available anymore. Mahavir Tourin Talkies is also not functional any more. The famous gas godown which was sunk in rains once upon time is missing now. Probably, we should not fall in love with any cities. But I did. And I know, many of my friends also did. Because Dalli Rajhara deserves to be loved. Share it, if you too love Dalli Rajhara and post your comments below. I'm posting some of my memorable snaps taken during my revisit to Dalli RAjhara on 2nd October 2017. |
Categories
All
Archives
October 2021
|