Rashmirathi

Was watching Gulaal (once more) last weekend and there was this section where Piyush Mishra starts reciting what seems like a scene from Mahabharat. Krishna is in the court of the Kauravas in a last ditch effort to avoid war, but Duryodhana attacks him.....it seemed familiar.

...anyways those lines were taken from Rashmirathi - a superlative work from the Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. And the section that seemed familiar was part of our curriculum - Krishna ki Chaitavini.

The poem journeys the life of Karna - the greatest warrior of the times, his dharma, his friendship, his generosity and the tragedies.

Why didn't we have a teacher who could help us appreciate the quality of our own literature?

Sample this - this is when Krishna asks Karna to change sides as defeat of Kauravas is certain...below are excerpts from Karna's reply who explains why he can never betray Duryodhana:

अपना विकास अवरुद्ध देख,

सारे समाज को क्रुद्ध देख
भीतर जब टूट चुका था मन,

आ गया अचानक दुर्योधन
निश्छल पवित्र अनुराग लिए,

मेरा समस्त सौभाग्य लिए
...
...
...
सिर लिए स्कंध पर चलता हूँ,

उस दिन के लिए मचलता हूँ,
यदि चले वज्र दुर्योधन पर,

ले लूँ बढ़कर अपने ऊपर.
कटवा दूँ उसके लिए गला,

चाहिए मुझे क्या और भला?
...
...
...
अच्छा अब चला प्रमाण आर्य,

हो सिद्ध समर के शीघ्र कार्य.
रण मे ही अब दर्शन होंगे,

शार से चरण:स्पर्शन होंगे.
जय हो दिनेश नभ में विहरें,

भूतल मे दिव्य प्रकाश भरें.


रथ से रधेय उतार आया,

And Krishna at the end responds...

हरि के मन मे विस्मय छाया,
बोले कि "वीर शत बार धन्य,

तुझसा न मित्र कोई अनन्य,
तू कुरूपति का ही नही प्राण,

नरता का है भूषण महान.

Can't Let This Memory Fade...

Sleepwalking

Joke of the year - Nobel Peace Prize

...actually this is the biggest WTF moment of 2009. I can almost imagine a collective gasp across the globe on hearing this year's winner.

I wonder who nominated him? Did he/(his team) lobby for it?

Besides the fact that the period under review ended just 12 days after he became the president, I wonder what change he has ushered in? It has all been talk and more talk. or is it simply an award for his "Yes, we can"rhetoric (coz thats what it has become now)? Or is it simply because he is not George Bush? Umm, I am also not George Bush;)

Of course the NPP remains the most dubious category - it has gone to the likes of Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, Henry Kissinger, Princess Diana in the past after all.

But I think this one is by far the most bewildering...belittles the genuine effort of others...sad...

...and to think Mahatma Gandhi was nominated 4 times (or was it 5?) and still wasn't suitable enough for the committee.

MH 505

While driving today, I noticed I was following a MH registered swift and I thought to myself, does the person driving feel awkward or embarrassed about it.

Would he feel uncomfortable or even unsafe driving with that number in a more northern state - say around Delhi? Isn't it ridiculous that these thoughts actually came into my head...Delhi is as much theirs as any other inch of India, then why isn't Mumbai mine or for a guy from Patna?

This growing regional jingoism has really begun to irritate me.

Bottled Water

How much water does it take to fill a liter of bottled water?

Interesting question...haha I thought perhaps around 1.5-2L but it turns out it takes around 3.

Picking on the nitty-gritties - 1 liter goes inside the bottle and 2 liters are needed in the production process-according to a 2006 estimate by the California-based Pacific Institute.

They even calculated the amount of oil needed to fill the bottles with water, transport them, chill them, and dispose of or recycle them - 250 ml per bottle.

Read more at:Bottled Water and Energy

Greenhouse Emissions

The debate rages on...but what is surprising is the heat (literally) that we are facing from the rest of the world over it. And I am unhappy with the way our government is trying to handle it - we keep trying to make everyone happy at the cost of our own genuine needs.

Sure global warming might be a problem and sure CO2 and other green house gas emissions need to be controlled, but why bully us?

And our strategy to tag with China doesn't make sense to me either? We are a lot better than them already - 4 times better almost.

Let us start with some facts, below is the share of CO2 emissions in %:

china - 21.5 %

United States - 20.2 %

European Union - 13.8 %

Russia - 5.5 %

India - 5.3 %

China and US together account for 40%. EU the most vocal when it comes to cutting emissions is not that far behind. We on the other hand are accounting for 5% (and rising of course).

Considering our 1.15 billion population (it should be around that by now), there is no way that we can reduce these levels.

What is needed is massive funding by the rich nations in alternate energy options - a) to developing nations like ours so that they can make an early shift and b) to develop these technologies to be affordable for other emerging countries.

Its really that simple...there is no way a government can justify spending billions to produce power at over 4 times the coal based plants when funds are needed for other sectors (health and education for example).

The country that can make the quickest impact on world CO2 (and the other more potent green house gases) levels is the US - the pressure should really be on them but they are already busy undermining the Copenhagen summit in December.

We should aim for:

a) maintaining the principles agreed during the Kyoto summit.

b) make US cut emissions

c) allow for another 5% increase for India - which is justified - 17% population should be allowed to make up for 10% global energy needs.

d) Increase the green cover across the globe...the impact may not be more than 10%, but it will be cost effective

and we need to come up with even more/better ideas.

Of course there are other aspects to it that go beyond basic energy needs...environment protection for example, where we are appalling and can not hide behind any excuses...we need to answer a lot for the state of our rivers, wild life and forest cover.

Similarly, there is no reason not to be more stringent with our emission norms...we should not only set the norms at par with European nations but also enforce it...who said its going to be easy :)

What a Bolt!

The 100 m sprint has always been the most enthralling atheletics event - I have always followed it...I think right from the times of the Seoul Olympics in '88.

I have seen the times tumble from 9.92 to now an outrageous 9.58.

Usain Bolt is simply sensational. How much faster can he go? 9.4?

I can almost bet that he will improve his 200 m records too in a few days and I thought it will be a long time before anyone came close to the Michael Johnson time of 19.32 set at the Atlanta Olympics ('96).