BAIL-OUT

Money, money maketh the mammoth man,

priced possessions raises the devil to elite clan;

with an air of arrogance he sets the trend,

turning the government to a pervasive friend.

Then comes the dubious recession storm,

democracies help him with a new reform.

Bail-out, bail-out these banking thieves,

world highlights only rich man’s grief.

Then comes the mystic election time,

ideals lost, and characters sublime.

The mammoth man plays  a role in the game,

pouring the money to boast his fame.

It is me, the LAYMAN, bewildered and lost,

hunted like a deer to be killed at any cost;

ARISE , AWAKE tells an inner voice,

it's time for us to make a better choice.

Reverberation

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand…these are the remarkable words of Lady Macbeth in the famous ‘sleep walking scence’ of Shakesphere’s MACBETH. Another literary instance which beacons is the peculiar ‘dream-conversation’ between Vasavadatta and Udayana in the drama SWAPNAVASAVADATTA written by the great sanskrit poet Bhasa. I had never ever thought that thinking can be so different and unique in literature, before I came across these descriptions. For a person in science, reading prose and poetry is indeed a welcome digression; as it has an amazing ability to take the mind to new shores, which are untouched by the rocketing Science. Personally speaking, science is like father of thoughts, and literature is mother of hearts. It switches you ON and sails the mind on soothing sea of imagination, and what a pleasant journey it is to travel through this ! Every time I read or hear a lovely prose or poetry, I get nostalgic about my English and Sanskrit classes in my B.Sc. days. The language courses we took have had a tremendous impact on my thought and perspective, and of course have molded my views and taste. It was an interesting time when these classes were held in between the Maths, Physics or Electronics class. This was a unique phase during the college where we experienced rich blend of rigorous science with splendid literature. We had some gifted teachers too, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them; it is indeed an amazing thing how great teachers can sculpt minds, and how they leave an everlasting impression on students. I am a living example of that.

                            During this time, I had the pleasure of studying some lovely poems like MEGHADOOTA, RAGHUVAMSHA, THE SEND OFF, YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, TELEPHONE CONVERSATION, ULYSSES, OZYMANDIAS and many more. Sometimes I feel that I was not good enough in the past to understand the deep significance hidden in each of them, and I discover a new meaning every time I read them now. Each one of them has a great story to tell, and they resonate in my mind for ever. A big thanks to internet and the public library in Purdue, I have been able to revisit and revise them, time and again.            

               Perhaps this is what good teaching can do, they make the horse go in search of the water, and of course time and experience further teaches the horse how to drink it. Although great teachers come and go in the passage of time, what remains is the reverberation of the immortal thought they seed in the pupil’s mind. Indeed, they do a priceless job…

 

Learning – a game of confinement

Mind is a window with colourful glass,

thoughts are the rays which dwell and surpass;

some are absorbed, some attenuate,

some get entangled to remain innate.

 

Every ray has a cause and an effect,

enters the window to evolve and correct;

Learning is a game of confining them,

and letting them out as a coherent stem.

 

Learning, per se, is a very interesting and involved process; it is a paradigm of mind to seek something unknown or to discover something which is latently hidden in the bushes of our thoughts. Lloyd Alexander says, We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.  Perhaps, this statement blends the definition of both learning and life itself. Every new-born living creature, humans or animals, are wonderful examples of this. It is amazing to see how newbies grasp, learn and adapt to the life surrounding them within such a short span of time. With every new thing learnt by the brain, there is a change in the think-tank, and one could call this as evolution of mind. However, it is interesting to note that humans learn less as they grow older. Although, this is not a general phenomenon, I can confidently say it is the most probabilistic one. There is a kind of aversion to take new things into mind, as we confine ourselves to the imaginary boundaries of thought, beyond which venturing is a strict ‘NO’.  I feel that we should always make an effort to learn something new, to keep ourselves evolved, and perhaps attain the state where learning becomes not only a path but also a destiny of mind. NEVER STOP LEARNING……

Nine rotund sisters

Listen to the story of nine rotund sisters,

all move in ellipse with vivid spectral colours;

Sun is their father, gravity the loving mother,

moons are their dolls which always stay together.

               

My paths are eccentric, with iron as my core,

Einstein’s elegant theory was proved by my shore;

I shiver in the cold and blister in father’s fury,

weird terrains on my skin, I am cute Mercury.

 

I neither have a magnet, nor dolls that go around,

I opened Galileo’s eye making him spellbound;

With pancake volcanoes, I am the ever-glowing highness,

I am a pseudo star, I am the beautiful Venus.

 

I am the land of life with belts and magnetic prisons,  

I home the crazy creatures: the mighty homo-sapiens;

I am the densest sister with a peculiar recipe of birth,

I am the green cradle, I am goddess Earth.

 

I am the fourth sister bathed in crimson red,

sapiens of the earth are digging water on my bed;

 Viking, Pathfinders are looking at my chars,

With Phobos, Deimos dolls, I am the puzzling Mars.

 

I am the walloping sister with a great red spot,

with no fusion tank I am still severely hot;

Mother gravity on me squeezes the inner matter,

with flowing hydrogen, I am the great Jupiter.

 

I am the pretty sister with a sizzling bright ring,

I am lightest of them all, indeed a mystic thing;

Cassini and Kirkwood gaps  form a strange pattern,

I fill the Voyager’s sight, I am the princess Saturn.

 

I am the modern lady, but people were very skeptic,

I am a strange sister rotating parallel to ecliptic;

Herschel spotted my beauty and called me "the Georgium Sidus",

I have an offset magnet, I am the bluish Uranus.

 

I perturb sisters around to take a different path,

I’m home to deadly storms and dark gaseous froth;

I have holes in my clouds with penetrating dune,

I may be the last sister, I am the far Neptune.

 

Father resides far and mother’s affection weak,

I am not a real sister to hold a position I seek;

I am anti-green house with no specific motto,

I move on chaotic path, I am the dwarf Pluto.