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The COVID-19 pandemic presented a contrast in the way it rolled out in 2020 and in its second wave in 2021 in India. The rigorous lockdown in 2020 prevented large-scale spread of infection and hospitalizations, and mortality levels in India did not…

I studied mechanical engineering and became a missile scientist as a fairly good accomplishment of a career, which got me an opportunity to develop India’s first titanium airbottles, used in missiles to power the control system…

When tall, handsome and perspicacious, Prof. RC Paliwal taught me Thermodynamics at the College of Technology, GB Pant University in 1972, it was amongst the first courses that acted like a moat that must be crossed to enter into the citadel of engineering. I started learning how tangible things like steam and ice are “made” by moving heat energy in and out of water. It was in those days that I learnt a mysterious term called “Entropy.”

A center of excellence is the best thing that can be created in this world. The reason is that it involves several decades of dedicated work, generations of people, and a great purpose that is relentlessly pursued without wavering. And above all, it changes destinies of countless people across generations…

Books have been my companions since childhood. My father worked in the Meerut Municipality and during the summer holidays, I would get books issued from the Loyal Library at the Town Hall, near his office, in his name. I mostly read Hindi books. I acquired the skill of reading English books in 1974, thanks to Late Ved Prakash Agarwalji…

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…