Blog

I have been blessed with the love and affection of some outstanding people, who gave me new insights and changed the way I think and feel. It all started when I arrived at GB Pant University for my graduation in Mechanical Engineering. It was indeed a transformative experience. The sprawling campus, organized as a semi-circle with the administrative building at the center….

I had gone to Greece in 2006 with my wife and had spent a week there. We traversed from Athens to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in the hills and sailed in the Saronic Gulf to the Hydra, Poros and Aegina islands in a cruise boat. In Athens, one of the world’s oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years, I roamed around as if in a trance…

I read a delightful book, “Clock Towers of India,” written by Dr. Yatindra Pal (YP) Singh. We share our Alma Mater – GB Pant University. I graduated in Mechanical Engineering and YP in Civil Engineering. Two years junior to me there, YP was studious, energetic and immaculate, unlike the playful, chaotic and scruffy me. YP won the Chancellor’s…

A Kaleidoscope is a fascinating little toy. I immensely enjoyed it and even made one in my woodcraft class, guided by my teacher “Tyagi Sir” in Dev Nagari Intermediate College, Meerut, in 1967. We took three mirror strips, tied them together as a triangle…

Cricket is a passion for Indians. I grew up listening to cricket commentary on the radio. During test matches, life would come to a lower gear as people unabashedly listened to commentary at work and students carried pocket transistor radios in their school bags. Shopkeepers put up display boards outside their shops writing with chalk the latest score…

Certain memories, not captured in photographs, not laced with emotions, were buried in the subconscious but they had never vanished. At the most unexpected moment, and at the subtlest cue, they sprung up in full liveliness as if they had occurred the last evening…

I am blessed with the friendship of Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya. He came to India in 2005, as part of the follow-up of President Kalam’s visit to Tanzania in 2004. An Anesthesiologist, Dr Mpoki brought with him a team of doctors…

This blog coincides with Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. Diwali symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. It is celebrated on the “darkest night” that ends the lunar month of Ashwin…

One thing is clear – the coronavirus pandemic is not going anywhere soon, and worst still,
scientific understanding, claims and predictions have all proven hollow, tentative, and even
contradictory…

Today is October 15, the birthday of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (1931-2015). Upon being elected the President of India in 2002, he decided to spend this day, away from Delhi, at a sacred place. For the five years of his Presidency…