Swabhabakabi Gangadhara Mehera
Love Practical
Abinash Raj
Scene-I
‘There is nothing called love. Everywhere you will find relationships based on mutual need of two persons. So you find your way as I have no interest in you’, the girl told a person seeming her ex-lover. The boy replied back ‘so you mean that the time we spent together during past several years is a waste…...’ ‘Who told waste? Even today I consider you as one of my best friends!’ the girl told. ‘Ok! As you wish’ the boy replied & turned back towards his bike parked at a distance rubbing his forehead. It was a hot afternoon after two showers of rain during day time in the month of July & the traffic on the road was normal as usual.
Scene-II
‘Can’t you hear me? I’m waiting in front of the entrance of IG Park. Find one ice-cream vendor near Soochana Bhawan boundary wall, who is dressed in a black T-shirt. You will get me standing nearby… the girl was speaking someone over mobile who seemed to be her boy friend. 7-8 minutes later… a boy, tall and dressed neatly, arrived driving a motor cycle. Within no time he located the girl of his dreams smiling at him and smiled back. He locked his bike there & both headed towards the park entrance. ‘Why you made me wait for nearly half an hour. I was scared of that black man looking at me vigorously. Henceforth come in perfect time’ the girl told the boy pointing towards a cigarette smoking young man. ‘Ok! As you wish’ the boy replied while checking the purse inside his back pocket. ‘IT sector is reviving & top companies are planning to recruit more number of staffs within next six months’ the Soochana Bhawan mike announced…..
EVOKED STIMULI
Surya Pratap Mishra
Some day in my life...
It was around 8P P.M. As usual I went to the mess with my friends to take our food. The food served at IIT was awful, to say the least. So, we decided to go over to the adjacent canteen instead. My dinner consisted of a plate of butter noodles, one plate of bread-butter and two cups of hot ginger tea. While having food, our discussions ranged from the recently concluded GATE examination to the biggest psycho amongst our friends. I went back to my room after taking dinner. The computer was running and g-talk chat window suggested that a friend had messaged me while I was away. She was already offline. So just messaged her back and closed the chat. I had some important graphs to show to my B-TECH project guide. I thought it would be a better idea to complete the graphs first. So I started working on that. It took two hours to finish up the task. Finally all the graphs were done. Origin Pro 7.5 has helped me a lot. I checked the g-talk list again. However, there wasn't anyone online who I thought would be a good company at that time. I had already watched two movies that day. So sleeping was the only option.
The next day.....
I opened my eyes with great reluctance. I was inside a soft blanket. And felt that my hands were wrapped around someone. I was shocked…. That person was looking at the other side. As I tried to get up from bed in haste, I had a look at that person. To my utter astonishment, I saw a woman!!! In her light green gown, with black long hair and black eyes she looked pretty. She seemed to be around twenty three years old. She looked happy as if she was smiling in her sleep. I was terribly scared... I had totally no clue about anything. I stood there looking at her, still thinking what had happened. I remembered that I had slept in my hostel room!!! “Where am I?” That was the only question running in my mind. Suddenly she woke up. Rubbing her sleepy eyes she got up and rested against the back of the bed. “Good morning honey!” She said. I did not know how to respond. I even did not know her. I had never met her in my life. But she seemed to recognize me well! I stood there blank faced. That was a great dilemma in my mind to wish a “Good morning” to that unknown lady. She smiled at me and got up from bed and walked towards the large mirror to her right. While she watched herself in the mirror, she asked me to get ready for breakfast. I had no option! I immediately went to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I was still trying to figure out the situation. From inside I could guess she was still standing in front of the mirror as if she was innovating something about her looks. “Oh God!!! What these women are!!” was the thought that crossed my mind? But suddenly when I realized that I was querying about the identity of that women who was behaving as my wife, I thought I was in a terrible dream. I tried to pinch myself, but could not the pinch although I could feel was not hard enough I guessed. As I turned around, I stared open-mouthed at the mirror. “Whoa!!! Who is this?” That was not me!!!! I examined the face closely. That was me, but I looked older!! And it was definitely not the same clothes I wore last night! I started to get panic. What happened to me over a night? How did I change so much? How did I get to that place? And who was the woman outside?
“Knock! Knock!!!” Open the door honey said she. I was ignorant of the next course of action. I was in a fix about whether to tell here that I didn't know her, whether to open the door or not?
Yes, coming in a minute reluctantly said I.
“Be fast, you will get late for office” was her reply.
“Office!!! God, what is happening here?” I was terribly shocked. I came out after sometime. There was no one in the room. I went to the wardrobe and picked some clothes. I was getting ready for office… Suddenly I noticed something on a small rack on the wall. That was a photo frame. There I was, not alone though. She was there too. And we both were smiling. From what it seemed, she was my wife… I could hear a mobile phone ringing at that instant. I looked around and found one lying besides the bed. Whose phone was that? I wondered that was mine! I Picked that up. My God! The mobile had the woman's picture as the wallpaper. And at the top-date displayed as “08:25 AM 12-05-2012”… I was in 2012! I could not believe my eyes. How could I be in 2012? It was only 2008 when I slept in my hostel room last night. Was I in a trance? Had I lost few years of my life somewhere in a black whole? Several thoughts engrossed me. The mobile was still ringing.
“Are you there in the room? The phone is ringing. Pick up the phone.” I could hear my wife.
That brought me back into the room.
“Hello.... Hello Mr. Mishra, this is Saxena. I got to inform you about a sudden change in plan today. Instead of our office, we will be meeting the clients at their office. Be ready. I will come and pick you up in about 20-25 minutes.” That said the unknown voice.
The mysterious Saxena hung up before I could ask him anything. I went out of the bedroom to find my wife at the dining table. She was preparing breakfast for her husband quite unaware of the fact that he had no clue when they got married! In a confused state about how to act in front of her, I wore a smiling face as if she was the only one I ever knew since I was born on this planet. Mr. Saxena arrived in twenty minutes. I said good bye to my wife and set off for the meeting with Mr. Saxena. While in the car Mr. Saxena said he wanted to discuss some issues about the meeting. I was still thinking about the four years that I lost in a night. Moreover, I did not have any inkling to what the meeting was all about. I tried to avoid any discussion on it. ”Oh Mr. Saxena, I know you have worked hard on it. I am sure you have prepared quite well. In fact, I would also like to give you the opportunity to present this in front of our clients. Do not worry. I will be with you and back you up. But I am pretty sure, you would not need that.” I said wearing a false confidence on my face. There was a quick glow on Saxena’s face.
“Really Mr, Mishra?” exclaimed he. “Oh, yes! I am not kidding.” I said with a hidden joy that I was saxena’s boss.
Again I tanked God for saving my life in that bizarre meeting. We reached the clients' office. Mr. Saxena took the lead in the presentation while I sat in the conference hall besides him, pretending to back him up. I was just praying for the meeting to end as soon as possible! The meeting was a successful one. We clinched a good deal! Mr. Saxena was ecstatic and thanked me for giving him that privilege. I humbly replied that he deserved it. “Mr.Mishra, lets take a break now. It was a good day! I will drop you back at your home.” Said Saxena.Yeah ! “Thanks to you Mr. Saxena, we now have this contract…” I replied to him. Mr. Saxena dropped me at my home. That was the after noon around 4 o’clock, my wife opened the door. I followed her to the living room.
“So early today” … said she, with a joy in her voice.
Yeah, the meeting wrapped up soon. Mr Saxena was good enough to drop me home. Can I get coffee? I said her as I was feeling like taking something to take. Oh sure, why don’t you get fresh, you will take some snacks as well, said she. No just I want coffee, I pleaded. A nice aroma of coffee made me a little moved; she definitely likes to prepare good food -I wondered. And she loves me a lot for sure; I was lost somewhere in my thought.
“Coffee”….. “coffee” wake up Suri….
I was amazed; whose voice was that anyway…. Oh God, I was in my sleep and in a dream that was felt as real… I could not believe my eyes, my old friend Sunita was standing in front of me holding a mug of coffee. That was 8 o’clock in the morning. With utter disbelief I took a sip of coffee and that made me get back the lost four years of my dream. I came to know from her that she just arrived and prepared coffee for me to give a pleasant surprise.
SERENDIPITY
Debasis Dash
I cried when I fell down with a thud.
Both my legs were weighing twice the weight it should be. That made it difficult for me to get up. Every time I tried to get up, I fell badly. After four attempts, I fell flat on my back and looked straight towards the sky. I could not make my mind how to get up. Loud party music was played nearby and the people around me were dancing to the beats. Some people did fall during the process, but they were straight on their feet soon after. I was the only guy out there who couldn't stand on his own feet! The pain in the legs was unbearable and the fact that, I had to get up quickly as people were cruising at twenty miles per hour around me.
Then, it started snowing. Oh God! I Murmured. ‘What am I going to do now…?’ I thought; crawling to shelter was one option, but that would look weird on the bed of ice. Wouldn't it?
Then I started cursing myself for wearing those heavy boots and getting into the center of the ice rink on a cold winter night. I had no experience of ice skating, but still I wanted to try and so had paid twenty pounds to get in there and fell awkwardly four times. That’s five pounds per fall! I tried to remove my skies, but it wouldn't come off. Or I didn’t know how to remove them. But, I had to remove them to lighten the load on my legs so that I could stand up. I was stuck there totally helpless.
“Are you a beginner” said someone above me.
I looked up and I saw a gorgeous girl in her teens wearing a bright red scarf around her neck. She smiled at me and offered her hands. I grabbed it and tried to get up. I got up, still holding her hands tightly. I was still in the danger of falling one more time. The blades in my stakes were so sharp and the ice so slippy that I was unable to stand. “I need something to hold on; other wise I would fall again” holding her hand for support I murmured. She smiled at me. “You can continue holding my hands if you are scared”
“Gee! Thanks!” I said and smiled sheepishly.
“I am not a professional, but this is my third class. So I think I am better handling skates than you are handling yours”. “Okay, now slowly push your left leg and move forward” she said. I just did that, but pushed my leg a bit more and was about to fall again. Scared of falling, I squeezed her hand tightly. “Easy!” she said. I forced a smile on my lips.
“Listen, this is easy. But you have to believe me. Hold my hands and do exactly what I do” She said, looking straight into my eyes.
At that point of time, paying twenty pounds and falling on the ice rink four times seemed well worth. “Twenty pounds is not a big money” I thought. Well, lots of other thoughts were floating in my mind at that time. Normally people in Newcastle have thrown rubbish at me and abused me several times. This was the first time; a gorgeous girl in the middle of the ice rink on a bitterly cold winter night was actually trying to help me. She took me around half the circle. I realized that I can skate though her assistance only. All the way, she was holding my hands, gently and helped me learn.
But, I didn't learn anything. I was only looking at her beautiful blue eyes. She was giving some instructions on how to skate. But, none of them went into my head. After half a round of skating, she said, “Try to implement this technique. You will be fine” and smiled.
“Good bye!” - She waved her hand and joined her friends.
I looked around, still in a state of bliss. None of the things that I saw was getting processed in my brain. The feeling was great. I could never put words to precisely describe that feeling. I looked around, once again. A couple of my friends were in the fourth class. One was skating like a Mickey Mouse and the other like a Robot. I laughed at them for a moment. Only then I realized that I didn't even thank the girl for helping me out. I started searching for her. Actually another beautiful reason my mind got for searching her was to ask her out for coffee.
“Damn! Why didn’t I do that before, when she was with me?” With the limited mobility, I found it too difficult to locate her in the rink. I searched and searched. But I couldn’t find her. She just disappeared.
“Am I the dumbest person around? What an opportunity was then to make friends with her, and probably more...?” I thought as more snow fell on my face. I missed to get to know her. What an idiot… looser was I? But those moments, the skate for half a round, the soothing words from her, were priceless.
Somewhere I read in a book that Columbus discovered America by sheer serendipity.
I began to access, is the discovery of a strange blissful feeling inside me for that unknown girl by any chance, serendipity?
An unsolved riddle
Picture Courtesy- http://www.jscudamore.com
It was about quarter to ten at night. I was sitting at the window seat peeping outside onto the platform; the train stopped. People rushed into the train as the train was running a bit late. A coolie with a suitcase and a big trolley stopped near by my berth. A girl followed the coolie. She seemed to be upset, nervous, a bit scared. Might be she was leaving home for the first time. Whatever be the case I was of course unwitting about her. She looked pretty in salwar but I guessed then, if she were in jeans and top could have looked prettier. The fear, the tension, the worries could not hide her beauty. Fair skinned was she with a round face, long hairs and big round moist eyes. She had her berth next to me. Her father escorted her to the station. He was standing outside the berth, waiting for her daughter to fix the luggage. Then he came near the window. I left the seat for her. I dint know what were they talking, may be those usual parental advises her father was rendering.
Don’t take anything from strangers, don’t get off any stations in between....have an eye on the luggage...Blah blah!!
I could see two drops of tear rolling down her cheeks calmly. The train left the station. She was trying to see her father as far as she could she. And gradually he disappeared. She came back to her seat and offered me my seat back. Thank God!! I love the window seat. If I had the free offer as she got I could have taken advantage of sitting for few more minutes for sure.
Suddenly I discovered a strong crave in me for a gossip with her. But I could not gather guts as she was upset and most of the time I fail in the act of consoling. I preferred to keep quiet until the morning. Everybody went for nap. So did I. Lights were off, still I could hear the sound of her weeping until I fell asleep. I woke up a bit earlier. I saw her sitting on the lower berth at the window. After finishing my routine job I sat in front of her. I was mingled in a duality of thought to tell a ‘hi’ or not!! “Can u please open the window glass”; that was the first sentence she uttered before me”. “God u r great” my mind was graced. “Yeah sure” said I with a spark. “Hello I am Abhishek”... No answer or a turned face would have been a great insult for me, “I am sagarika”... Thank God again!! She was not as dull as I thought of her. And after that we continued talking ... The journey was definitely going to be pleasing for me ... I could make out.
She was a second year MBA student in some college in Chennai, what I could know form our conversation. That was the third time she traveled on train for Chennai. I then was made wrong in thinking her to be a first year student. I though if she cried every time she traveled for Chennai…! That was beyond my courage to ask her such a silly question. Huh…. We talked lavishly. Obviously she talked more unveiling the much heard gossiping talent of women in general and I enjoyed bit by bit. She had come home after long six months stay in Chennai. And she stayed at home for a week; she was describing how she enjoyed each and everyday with her family, with her brother and cousins. Her eyes were enlightened speaking about the days she spent at her home.
It has always been a mystery for me, what ultimately the parents want to gain by keeping their children away from them…is it higher education…! Is it a good job with handsome salary…..! Is it a better and a secured future….! Or anything else….! And why are these needed…… To get happiness in later part of life!!!!! We save our life to live later; I have seen cases where that later never comes. To get a better tomorrow we sacrifice our today. On the other hand to live a so called civilised life, one need everything ……education, money and even more than that. In the process of achieving those, beautiful moments of life are often sacrificed; emotions suppressed and killed. And why….! I never get an answer to this and I conclude…..I am Confused, I am in duality…... Let it be the way it is…I am too young to understand!! But if I were to rule the world I would say. “No children should leave their parents”.
It was lunch time. We had our lunch. In the meantime she would have received at least twenty calls from her home shooting queries that if she was fine and where did she reach. Her battery was drained and she asked me if I could come with her to the AC boogie to charge her cell for sometime. Of course I could!! She charged her cell for about fifteen minutes and we stood near the door for that time. She asked me about my whereabouts. And finally we exchanged our numbers. We came back to our seats and talked for some more time until the train reached the station. I called a coolie for her, we walked to the station gate where we shook hands and she told “nice meeting you”…”same her” I said. She waved her hand and vanished into the crowd. We never met after that. We had contacts over phone. She became a very good friend of mine. She got married 4 years later, and blasted on me because I was out state and could not attend the function.
Twenty five years passed, I still live in Bhubaneswar with my wife and a son. One fine evening I went to attend a marriage function with my family. And there I met her for the second time, she has grown a bit fat, cheeks were chubby with few wrinkles, but she was as charming as she was twenty five years back. I introduced her to my family and she introduced her family to me, she has a cute daughter; who had come back from US after two years to spend her vacation here in Orissa. She will be back to US in a month’s time…for higher education, more money, and good job and yes for a cherished secured future. I am old enough but still I can not understand. It's just I hope she does not weep like her mother.
Article on Science
NANO-TECHNOLOGY
Meera Swaien
Meera Swaien
INTRODUCTION
Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve studying and working with matter on an ultra small scale. It is a technology that creates small materials at the scale of molecules by manipulating single atoms. Many scientific and technological advances have been made recently that depend on the properties of materials at a very very small scale. Such technological advances are known as “nanotechnology”, the prefix ‘nano’ being derived from the Greek word ‘nanos’, which means dwarf.
Image source- http://musreg.name/?p=36
HISTORY
The term “nanotechnology” was defined by Tokyo science university professor Norio Taniguchi in a 1974 paper as follows: Nanotechnology mainly consist of the processing of separation, consolidation and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule. In 1980s the basic idea of the definition was explored in much more depth by Dr. Eric Drexler, who promoted the technological significance of nano-scale phenomena and devices through speeches and books.
The amount of data, which can be stored per square centimeter, has doubled each year for the last decade. The reading head of a current hard disk drive uses the effect of giant magneto resistivity (GMR) to sense the recorded magnetic data.GMR sensors use metallic stripes, less than 2nm thick, whi -ch are extremely sensitive to changes in magnetic fields. These are connected electrically to the disk drive electronics.
Some of the newer products that incorporate nanotechnology include biosensors, devices that can analyze blood composition to detect disease and illness, longer life tennis balls, glasses that cleans itself, rocket propellant that burns at double the normal rate, super tough automobile and plane coatings and fuel additives that improves fuel consumption and lead to reduces emission of noxious exhaust gases.
IMPACT
Nanotechnology is currently the subject of much research and study, and as a result it is developing rapidly. It has great potential for producing improvements and innovations in many areas of life like:
- New and improved health treatments.
- Reduced use of some harmful or scarce resources.
- Cleaner ,faster and safer manufacturing
- Increased life cycle of products.
SCALE
Nanotechnology occurs at the order of nanometer (symbol: nm), that is from 0.1nm to around 100nm (which is 0.00000001 to 0.00001 cm)i.e. it is defined as one billionth of a meter ,which is a thousandth of millionth of a meter ,or 1*10^-9 m. To put it another way, a nanometer is about: as wide as a DNA molecule, how much our fingernails grow each second, 1/80,000 the diameter of an average human hair!!
NATURE
Nature is the master of operating at the nanoscale –it has always depended on nanoscale operations for the functioning of life, for example: the metabolic activities within cells that sustain life: the fertilization of an embryo in reproduction; and the interaction of cellular components foe cell movement, to name a few. The ecosystem is another natural system, which is heavily dependent on nanotechnology –nano particles are important in the formation of both rain and snow.
TECHNOLOGY
There are many familiar products and machines that we use everybody which already rely on nanotechnology: the most obvious of these the computer hard disk drives, which relies on various nanotechnologies to record and read date. These in turn will have beneficial socio-economic and environmental effects. However as with any advance, there is always the prospect of unwanted knock-on effects too. These can be avoided only if there is an informed understanding and debate within society as a whole.
Nanotechnology is broad term that can describe any science and technology where structures of the order of a nanometer play a critical role, and as a result many different areas including electronics, magnetism, biotechnology, material science, medicines and health care, environmental science and textiles. The diversity of the disciplines involved means that often grouping of similar technologies emerge and develop their own focus.
Like it or not, nanotechnology is the next BIG THING.
Article on "importance of Water"
Water should be Everybody’s Business
Aroopjyoti Tripathy,
Graduate Student,
Ecological Engineering Program,
Purdue University,USA.
Purdue University,USA.
Numerous tales have been told about rich kings who were richer than the Gods and of poor beggars who survived days without food, but never has a story been told of any man who has lived without “Water”. If the soul is the one which gives life to a body, water is a major entity that helps in sustaining this life. In simple terms, “Water is Life”. I strongly support the notion that water should be everybody’s business.
Water not only sustains life, but it also sustains our economies. Agriculture and industries both require water being operational. Outside the human needs, fresh water is required to keep the ecosystems healthy. Most importantly water makes three fourth of the earth’s surface and balances the biophysical makeup of the planet. It is because of water that life has been possible on this planet.
Courtesy- http://vickiemarana.blogspot.com
Rainfall along with the ice and glacier caps happens to be the main sources of world’s fresh water, both blue and green. But in today’s world, global climate change has lead to anomalies in rainfall pattern and it has also lead to melting of the ice caps, posing a threat to world’s water resources; and to make things worse, the ever increasing human population and his development, has lead to increase in fresh water demand. Now if we consider water as a necessary commodity, which is required to sustain life, then these changes in the world’s climate and rapid anthropological developments has brought about disturbances in the water supply and demand balance. With the demand for water going up, the supply has been going down, which is gradually pushing the planet into terrible water stressed scenario.
With imbalances being caused and clean fresh water becoming a costly commodity, it has become so, that today “Water flows towards the Rich”. Such a trend will cause the poor to suffer economically and will ultimately starve him to his obliteration. It has become a need of the hour to make access to fresh water a birth right for all human beings.
People should understand the importance of water for themselves, for the society and for the creation as a whole. Every man should be provided access to fresh water, but more importantly each one of us should be made accountable for the water we use and the water we waste. Only if water is made everybody’s business, and all men realize how important water is for us, we stand a chance to fight together and alleviate the world of its current water crisis. After all, someone has correctly said, “Thousands have lived without Love, but none without Water”.
Article on World Peace
Factorial viewpoint of (non-)existent world peace
Ananta Kar
Ananta Kar
According to the UN, 21st September 2009 was International Peace Day. In fact, it is the same day every year. It was planned first in 1981 and was celebrated for the first time in September 1982. Remember the peace dove? Yeah, it is the dove’s day. On this day, each country on the planet-4 is expected to keep the war weapons aside and try to help peace prevail across all the 7 continents and 5 oceans. At national and international levels, this is surely a different day than an as usual one; no need to worry about missile testing, nuclear weapons, might be a special day for a soldier safeguarding the border of his country that he can sleep peacefully this one night. Actually, if a look is thrown on to statistics, it can be inferred, after its inception, the effort towards planetary peace has expedited in some parts of the globe. But moving down the level of hierarchy, when we reach at personal level, do we feel this day as a different one! We have the same routine life, no holiday. So why should we celebrate peace for that one day! Other viewpoints can be like, International peace day! Huh! What big deal in this? What will change on a single day? Any optimistic person can easily answer this one theoretically. The most common answer would come from the other side saying someday it got to start and let this one be the day. The mission of achieving world piece will get stronger and more appealing as the days progress. Moving on to the practical side of this answer, how many of us really believe in world peace, do we want to have it or it is just another word we try to repeat every time when required! Here, “we” starts from you, me, friends, our community, near and far relatives, the people we know, the people we don’t know, people across seven seas and people of every religion to the set of individuals of every continent. If we talk about the phenomena called world piece, the whole world is taken as a family and all of us are the elements of this we. Celebrating peace at international level is just a start which can never be complete without being implemented at lower levels. Many of the good things start from a lower level and move up, the process of establishing world peace if started at personal and inter-personal levels would be the easiest of all difficult approaches.
May the difference be a minute or a significant one, each person is no indifferent from another when exposed to events. The most important one can be considered as behavioral or characteristics difference. In a given situation, one person might act wisely enough to handle the occurrence of events in a smooth and peaceful way where as, a different person might invite trouble for not acting in a proper way. There is absolutely no way to eliminate these kinds of differences in each and every part of the globe. Such differences many a times lead to disputes starting from differences in views and opinions. While heading for a global peaceful environment, some things needed to be taken care of. One of them is conflict-free or peaceful interaction at lower levels. Some say, trust is the base of peaceful personal interaction. Some say, there got to be a shared language and an open channel of communication with an understandable value evaluation where both sender and receiver will be synchronized upon a matter. Some say, its religion, further dividing to inter-religion and intra-religion ones. To support the view, they throw light on history to remind again the war in Ireland between Roman Catholic and Protestants, conflicts between Shias and Sunni in Islamic arena. The process of finding such factors is a continuous one. In my view, how about the approach given by Mario Puzzo, the great writer, in one of the greatest fictions till date! Let’s reason with people. While negotiating with a person, understand his needs properly, be honest, know your limitations, act accordingly and lead to a win-win situation. This will definitely help in any kind of situation where disputes are likely to happen.
Change is the only constant thing and at any point, things are changing radically with the conversion process of present to past and future to present. Individuals believe they are in the midst of a significant change, planning and preparing for emergency escape routes at the right time. Subject is not on fringe survivalists. It is about the types of people in a corporate world. Those people, who are good entrepreneurs, those who have good jobs in government and private or public sectors, those who are essential parts of successful companies and those people with some source of earning with families and mortgages are, in a world, distinctly unpeaceful in current time. They are baffled, hesitant, lacking in confidence, concerned, fearful. They run on their routine lives but, do look up towards the sky in speculation of what is next there for me. There is always a never ending negatively inclined curiosity. These factors can be said to be one of the biggest robbers of the wealth called mental peace at personal level. Personal peace leads to inter-personal peace. To achieve the goal “world peace” the beginning has to be strong and a serious thought is to be given by each individual for building a healthy and peaceful social environment.
Picture Courtesy- http://positivekismet.blogspot.com
Moving on to the international arena, there have been several peace pacts in the world history over the last century. Alongside, the differences in peace theories have been obstacles since the very beginning. Democratic peace theory has been controversial and in accordance to its proponents, there is existence of strong enough empirical evidences proving democracies haven’t and won’t ever or rarely indulge in war with each other. Despite of every variation, all the theories that are referred to as democratic peace theory (DPT), often, used to refer only to the original conjecture, disregarding later developments in the theory. Such theories are often referred as liberal peace or perpetual peace or the Kantian peace theory in honor of Immanuel Kant, who proposed an earlier and useful version of the theory. Several researchers have worked on experimentation of the behaviour of this theory and they too have inferred the fact of lowest probability of any war between well-established liberal democracies. Doesn't matter if it is trivial or controversial, all that ends good, most of the times produces good results. If the democratic peace theory helps a progress towards the ultimate goal in right direction, there is no harm in looking forward along its line of existence and trying to increase its scope. On the contrary, some propose that the capitalist peace theory is a better solution to the problem. The security dilemma implies that insecurity is an everlasting facet in international affairs. As each country on the earth is fearful and concerned for its own security, insecurity is predicated on the expectation that there are some countries that are revisionist powers. Even the pessimistic conceptions of world affairs seem to be more sanguine as the assumption that insecurity is ubiquitous and immutable if taken on a relaxed note. The act of promoting open international markets and continuously monitoring the direction in which it advances will help spreading capitalism and will help encourage peace as well as prosperity. They say it has its bad side too but quite less! Many enemies of economic liberty also stridently denounce war, often in near pacifist terms and yet they oppose the very economic policies most likely to encourage peace. The peace theorists have a task in their queue, that is to identify when and how nations can be liberated from the security dilemma they are in. Here they try to argue and prove that the resolution of insecurity can be achieved by creating powerful pacifists and capitalism comes into picture right here. This theory says countries that possess military strength ensure that they are mutually exclusive with outside influence or domination. But, in my view, it is not a very effective solution as under certain circumstances, they lack incentives to act aggressively abroad when there is a real need to do so. Another peace theory is the communist peace theory. There are certain other theories like communist peace theory and globalization, but these are not proven to be very effective and would be difficult to implement.
In my view, it is next to impossible to achieve worldwide peace. But if a serious effort has to be given, then first and easiest approach would be self-organized peace at personal level, trying to improve the state of mental peace in an individual. If we compare the model to the structure of internet, as internet is a network of networks, a network of peace has to be structured in subsequent steps. Every conflict doesn't start with an explosion of a nuclear bomb. If tried, almost all of the conflicts can be avoided at the first step. Such a global conflict-free environment will help the mankind avoiding a possible extinction. Let peace prevail.
Article on Share Market
Value Investing
Prasanna Sabat
Don’t gamble, buy ownership. Don’t make money, create wealth. Remove fear and greed from the mind. Buy when everybody is selling and vice versa. People buy a share at 100 Rs but when everybody is selling and its price crashed to 60 Rs they fear to buy again, but when everybody is buying and it goes to 120 Rs they make a queue to buy again. Buy with conviction for the company on its business value not on the rumors or others prospective on it. Patience is the key. When you have bought share of the company you should understand its business, the ideal scenario can be like you should be able to understand (substantiate with your knowledge) on its every business decision published in public domain. Otherwise you might have caught a big fish but would have sold it much before its adulthood. A small example you must have received through many forward mails that, what is the current value of your investment if you have invested ten thousand rupees in Infosys IPO when it was launched in early nineties. It would be more than one crore that is the power of compound interest. But we mostly have lack of patience to realize that true potential.
Now how to find the intrinsic value?
That’s why such areas like ‘Company Valuation’, ’Security Analysis’, ’Financial Management’ exists and thousands of people are doing research on those. But that is learnable by anyone. You don’t need ten such (Infosys IPO) opportunities in your life time.
How to control greed and fear before taking such decisions: explore ‘Behavioral Finance’, one of the most fascinating subjects in finance I have ever come across which has profound use in our day to day life.
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Prasanna Sabat
Value investing is an investment strategy for investing in stocks or equity. This philosophy can teach you few more points which can be used in your daily life. The scope of the discipline is very large. This is a huge area to write an introduction concisely. The objective of this article is to churn few drops from the ocean and a casual read for a novice investor.
This is a concept or strategy followed by some of the legendary investors who have made their fortune from the stock market. I am trying to explain the same from the knowledge by reading those investment philosophies from their books or other sources. This is something like training your mind and temperament in that direction. There is no shortcut or formula. If you are looking for some tips on some equity or fund or sector, pick for your portfolio; chuck it and move on.
Suppose you want to buy a cow what will you do? Look out for all the places or people selling a cow, right! When you are buying the cow you must have a price in mind depending on your criteria. Even if you know that a particular variety of cow (C1) giving x liters of milk per day costs you a thousand rupees you will definitely try to do some bargain. You will look out for someone who is buying in distress (like he has urgent need of money and selling in lower price). You will check the health of the cow, how much you have to feed and how was her past milk output etc etc.
After finally buying the cow you must have thought how you are going to deal with her. Like just milk her for the season and dispose or take good care of her and also milking her for next generation. But whatever it may be you can give me ten good points on why you bought her. You will never buy a cow just because everybody is buying. You will never make a queue to buy the cow without checking the price tag or without checking its worthiness. You will never pay double the price of the cow thinking you will again sell or milk her to its triple price. Just compare this with your experience with buying a stock in your last few transactions. Can you write ten points on why you owned that share? Do you know the right price of that share or have you bought it less than that or more than that…! Now you must have got some idea on what is value investing. It’s simple but not easy. This is the concept followed by people hundred years before and still this holds good even today.
Don’t gamble, buy ownership. Don’t make money, create wealth. Remove fear and greed from the mind. Buy when everybody is selling and vice versa. People buy a share at 100 Rs but when everybody is selling and its price crashed to 60 Rs they fear to buy again, but when everybody is buying and it goes to 120 Rs they make a queue to buy again. Buy with conviction for the company on its business value not on the rumors or others prospective on it. Patience is the key. When you have bought share of the company you should understand its business, the ideal scenario can be like you should be able to understand (substantiate with your knowledge) on its every business decision published in public domain. Otherwise you might have caught a big fish but would have sold it much before its adulthood. A small example you must have received through many forward mails that, what is the current value of your investment if you have invested ten thousand rupees in Infosys IPO when it was launched in early nineties. It would be more than one crore that is the power of compound interest. But we mostly have lack of patience to realize that true potential. Next thing is risk. Value investing is low risk high gain phenomenon. Yes low risk high gain that is why it’s against the conventional wisdom but it’s true. Just think over it; if you can understand. A true value (intrinsic value in value investing terminology) of a share is Rs 100. If one person X is buying this at Rs 40 and another Y at Rs 60; who has more risk? Of course Y has more risk; who will gain more? Of course X.
Again risk is a relative term according to most of the investors but here risk is an absolute term. This is little tricky to understand. Your risk is losing all your money (for X its Rs 40 and for Y Rs 60) and gain is reaching your intrinsic value (for X its Rs 60 and Y Rs 40).
That’s why such areas like ‘Company Valuation’, ’Security Analysis’, ’Financial Management’ exists and thousands of people are doing research on those. But that is learnable by anyone. You don’t need ten such (Infosys IPO) opportunities in your life time.
How to control greed and fear before taking such decisions: explore ‘Behavioral Finance’, one of the most fascinating subjects in finance I have ever come across which has profound use in our day to day life.
****
Festivals of Odisha
Dhanu Jatra
Sudhansu Sekhara
That time he can summon any person to his Darbar by exercising his kingly power. Dhanu Yatra is part of rich cultural heritage in Orissa. It’s not only the festival with a noble consequence of social harmony, friendship and brotherhood, but also it has great iconic importance of celebrating the victory of righteousness over evil.
Sudhansu Sekhara
Dhanu Jatra, is considered as world's biggest open air play. It is held in Baragarh town of Sambalpur (Now is a district) of Western Orissa. The grandest festival falls on Pausha Purnima (Full moon day in the month of Pausha) in winter season and lasts for seven to eleven days. In the festival, the whole Baragarh town turns into a massive open-air theatre. The main crux behind this festival is to celebrate the victory of Lord Krishna over Kans, the demon. The festival decorates Baragarh town as the epic town of Mathura (Birth Place of Lord Krishna); where the local river Jira turns into river Yamuna and the village Amapalli turns into Gopa pur native of Srikrishna.
The holy festival started in the year 1949 although opinions vary in this regard. Few people opine that it started in eightieth century. Whatever the commencing period of the festival in Baragarha may be, the cultural spirit has abided the mind and soul of the people of Sambalpur and Baragarha to celebrate the festival with gusto till date. In the very festival, as the whole town turns into a grand theater, the people also turn into actor and actresses of the mythological play. Few dress themselves as the main characters like Krishna, Radha Yashoda, Nanda, Balaram, Kansha etc and others dress themselves as people of Gopa and Mathura.
Picture Courtesy- http://www.navratnanews.com
In the festival, Kans takes the pivotal role and the whole village comes over the streets of bargarh to enjoy and participate. Kans moves around the town with his (sena) military strength and everyday he reaches out to specific location to sort out certain issues as the part of duty of a king which is called Nagar Parikrama. As he moves around the city, all levels of people (starting from lay man to the persons with high positions like Collector, DM, SP etc) attend his meeting (known as Kans Darbar).
Picture Courtesy- http://www.navratnanews.com
Esteemed Artist Sri Sudhansu Sekhara Satapathy
Guruji Sri Sudhansu Sekhara Satapathy
Honourable Artist Sri Sudhansu Sekhara Satapathy is an illustrious Spiritual artist who believes that meditation is an integral part of painting. He was born in 1955 in the state of Odisha in India. He was introduced to yoga at the age of eight by his maternal grandfather who was also instrumental in teaching him the basics of Ayurveda, astrology and various Hindu worship rituals such as Yagna. He completed his formal education in arts and four years of training in Khalikot Arts College in Berhempur. During early period of his painting career he came across his Spiritual Guide called as “Babaji” His Holiness Trailanga Swami. He was the direct disciple of “Babaji”. Esteemed Artist’s whole striving has been to connect his spiritual life with his creations. He says “The visualisation in deep meditation is what I depict in my art.” He had created many marvelous art works on the Bhagvat Geeta, Raaga-Raginis(Indian forms of music), Sri Aurobondo’s Epic “Savitri”. During his detailed work on Savitri, when he finished 72 paintings on abstract mysticism, he simultaneously concentrated on ancient Indian literature- Vedas and Vedantas. He started studying the vedas in original and after several years of intense concentration he started working on Vedic Mantras. He believes that the Vedic Mantras have a form that can be reproduced by a man who has both the technique to draw, the depth of knowledge to understand the Mantras and the right training to retain the image formed in deep meditation. By then the Honoured Artist had more than 20 years experience in meditation and yoga, had finished numerous paintings and had gone through several books on Indian philosophy, often discussing with other great masters. In 1989 he worked on Rig Veda. The Rig Veda is considered one of the four sacred books of Hinduism and held with high regard by the learned. While working on Vedic verses he started exploring methods of Vedic teaching and education. The Talent Research and Vedic Education Center founded by him in 1989 situated at Bhubaneswar has been growing as the hub of Vedic way of teaching. In this institute according to the Vedic system a student learns under a master or Guru various aspects of knowledge like yoga, art, painting, medicine and identification of medicinal plants and karmakanda (upliftment through action and worship).
THE MIRAGE
Pankaj Agrawalla
Pune
Mail
Pune
The mirage of hope you created that was never there.
The reflection I saw wasn't water but just thin air.
And again when I open my eyes and again when I dare,
To look beyond this mirage, I see another one is already waiting there.
Mirage I call it. You call it the projections of my thought,
Of the love I always craved for and the affection that I sought.
You said, 'a trick of the heart that a desperate mind bought'.
And I was merely a fly, in the webs of pity that got caught.
Alas! I see a path. Finally the truth is bare.
And with all of you dying flies, I want to share.
Look beyond this veil of hope which isn't even there.
Just a valley of flower to lure you, where the devil waits in its lair.
An epistle
Miss Deepti Sreeram
Hyderabad
Dearest Nahid,
This is an episode. These are episodes.
An episode in a water tight compartment.
Nahid,
Sit by that dresser,
Comb your hair next to my bed,
Throw that wrapper on my floor.
No, I am not needy.
It is just that, Why don't you?
So, it rained yesterday.
I was writing,
Letter was so wet.
No, Not to you. Not that needy.
But, why don't you write to me?
Nahid,
Do you have that kajal with you?
The one that smudges.
I hate it.
But, smudge it more. You look beautiful.
Why don't you?
Mild body lotion bottle in my dustbin,
Scent of that wretched lemon grass.
It was always on me,
Night, day, noon, bus, chair, shelf.
You still have it. I know.
Don't you?
When will you reply?
When will you come for me?
This being an episode,
Episodes built upon daydreams,
Where you are a part of me,
I am signing off.
But, why don't you,(needy am I?)
Come out. Will you?
Yours truly,
When you come.
