The mighty plan

My daughter was born in August last year and I could not be happier. But as it was to be, I could only meet her after almost 8 months. Indeed it was tough for me to be away. Little did I know, worse was still to come. As I started off to my long term assignment in Australia, I only hoped to see her sooner.

"God would have planned something better for us", is what I have had heard all my life. I am not sure if I ever believed it. Only once before I was afraid to make it by air travel which was my first flight. Thereafter as I travelled multiple times by air, it was like travelling on road but without multiple stops. I took my flight from Delhi to Australia via Singapore. My heart was heavier than it was ever and mind occupied with just one thought of having my wife and child with me.

Onboard Jet flight, I probably did not spend a minute without them in my thoughts; wishing only if they could be along. If destiny was it, I wished it was not. I am not sure if I had wet eyes. Thought occured to me if it was one of those God's plans but I could not find a reason or make sense out of it. Just as it was happening or shall I say, nothing was happening at all, there was a mid-air scare. Captain called it turbulence and passangers believed as if they had an option otherwise.

Until, all of sudden plane rushed higher at a certain angle and it was indeed on its own. Next thing I could hear was children crying with fear and thundering fearful voice all around which included mine as well. As if those couple of seconds were not enough, plane started falling uncontrolled. I tightly held on to my seat as it was certain plane crash, atleast as it felt that moment. Plane had changed direction from going higher to falling down. I believe baggage started falling down wherever lock was open. Some passangers got injured and call was made for doctors onboard. Not sure how many seconds did it take, but these were most fearful moments of my life ever.

I remember that I prayed to be saved for this one time. And also, I remember I did thank God that my family was not along. Although we did carry on fine with rest of journey, I would have never even wished my family to be through those couple of seconds or minute even if eventually it was for nothing.

I believe now that there is a mightier plan that we can neither see nor understand. We just need to believe in.

Atulya

I am not my name
Neither was i born with one
Hardly do i know the meaning either,
And hardly do others
Seldom do i try to learn ,
Often i dont care
And nor do others
Never did i try to live up to it
And never did i
Still all know of me by my name
And call me so too
I also turn each time
To live to this vague truth
All my life.

Not just another journey

It was meant to be just any other regular out station visit but it didn’t turn out to be. It was as scripted, until I had returned.

It so happened that I planned to visit Amritsar on 13th of Nov. With my brother and sister and their families along, I had almost written down our every move in advance. Because I had stayed in Amritsar 15 years back, I knew most of the town anyway. The journey was primarily to visit Golden Temple, Wagah border and my past, the last one touching me all along overnight train.

My brother, sister and myself; we were kids when we were in the town last time and I must say everything had ‘un’grown smaller by time. The roads, the buildings, the old house around the corner, the school, the church, everything looked smaller. We used to walk down to school from home and for last so many years we resented that how far we had to go to study. And now we knew why our father never looked serious all these years to listen to all that.

Golden temple was indeed as divine as anyone would have heard, saw or read about. Ofcourse visit to Jallianwalla Bagh reminded me of Udham Singh whom I am not sure how many Indians know was a real-life Braveheart. I just always remember him because he was proud son of Sunam, my mother’s hometown.

14th Nov, we picked a cab to Wagah border. My emotions were all time high (or shall I say weak) to think of evening ceremony and of the faint memories that had lived with me for many ears. By the time we reached the place, we realized it to be Children’s day and to our surprise the crowd was overwhelming. It didn’t turn out to be good idea to come this far from Delhi on his day because it was almost impossible to find a place among countless people.

Although it was hard work to catch glimpses of the ‘show’, it was indeed worth every painful moment to stand in this over-crowded crowd. With slogans of Vande-Matram and ‘Bharat mata ki ai’, school children dancing to tune of ‘mere desh ki dharti’ and BSF men showing their might in tasteful way, it was mixed emotions of joy and patriotism.

I returned a proud Indian and joined office next day. Over tea, the Wagah border was indeed something to talk and listen about. While I was almost done with my story, my friend asked me if this was really what I wanted at the border, the hostility. I started off with an answer but did not reach anywhere. This was not probably the best of shows I would have wanted to see and I new it now. Although it was indeed impeccable and very well choreographed, what I really wanted was to shake hands with people across the border, talk to them, and laugh with them. More so, remembering Nehru on Children’s day, I wished the day had to do something with peace instead.

I knew now that while I thought I was a proud Indian alone, I was actually an hostile Indian too.

Truly Wireless

Let me mention two things before proceeding any further – Wireless does not mean mobile and and ‘truly’ is very important here. Getting rid of fixed landline phones took almost a decade. Still there is one last string attached to phone or laptop, the power cable. The idea is to discuss Wireless electricity (far from being mobile electricity), its importance and how far we are from some very interesting days ahead.

GSM was indeed the revolution, the kind we are waiting to see again after so many years. Mankind has not looked back since then as far as telecommunications is concerned. With moving from circuit switched networks, primarily made for speech; to packet data networks, it has been a very interesting journey. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) made it possible to browse through internet, wirelessly and while being mobile. With more and more need for higher data rates and low latency, HSPA, 3G, WiMax-m and LTE became the buzzwords. Communications domain has evolved and so has the ways we communicate.

The next revolution is not just around the corner wherein everything goes wireless, but its already happening. While 4G wireless transmission technologies are enabling wireless applications like Mobile-TV, video conferencing with better audio/video qualities, it needs more and more energy. Therefore is the need for longer and longer so called standby and talk times (better to replace with ‘application times’). Hence, what’s actually next around the corner is ‘wireless electricity’ or to better say it ‘wireless energy’ without which nothing is ‘truly wireless’.

There are some means to actually deliver wireless energy like batteries that never last but because this is far too optimistic, batteries that charge wirelessly is cautious optimism. Even to start with, I have felt the need for mobile to mobile charging when my phone is out while my friends are charged to limit. In its simplest form, energy transfer from one wireless device to another wireless device (even if it’s through a cable), is a form of usable wireless energy. WiTricity Corp is doing pioneering work in this domain which is an offshoot of MIT research. It has demonstrated lightning of a 60W bulb, at a distance of 2 meters by transferring magnetic energy using resonant coupling.

There is no technology company either that has not moved seeing this technology juggernaut coming its way including Nokia, Phillips, Intel, Samsung, Sanyo, Duracell and many others. Wireless power consortium (Qi, of which Nokia is also a member) is about to come with first wireless electricity standard.

Vihaan Networks recently launched a solar powered GSM system which provides communication services in remote villages where not even roads or electricity has reached. This winning product has hugely cut down on cost to setup the system along with having zero maintenance costs. China is longing to become biggest player in solar power. Recently, it has created a large array of glasses to focus solar energy into single usable source. Research is also going on to create a single beam in space from solar energy. Therefore, I see solar power as hugely available wireless energy which is waiting to be exploited.

Wireless power, is indeed one of most exciting and promising domains in near future.

References:
http://www.witricity.com/index.html
http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/index.html
http://www.physorg.com/news172224356.html

A word or two

Thinking of you, I thought of writing,
A word or two, without deciding,

Where am I, without you,
What am I, without you,

To talk of you, to write about you,
In very few, words that hold,

Nothing of me, as I am to you,
Everything of you, as you are to me.

An Urge To Surge

There is something that beats inside
And its not the heart this time

Something rises and craves
Not for love and certainly not for wealth

I am starving when i have food
I feel contained and confined

To say the least, i say more
But i dont know what for

The song i sing, sounds like dirge
How shall i rime, an urge to surge?

And then came Gandhi

The title sums it all. It was exactly how i felt when i read this sentence in Nehru's Discovery of India. If i have to describe the feeling, it might be difficult. But it was certainly a huge surge of emotions. As Nehru went on to write about colonial British rule and how it was plundering Indian wealth, nothing less than messaih was needed to sort the things right. And thats what exactly happened to India.

This blog is not about what happened in history but about the need of the hour. I had couple of discussions with friends in office and with my father at home about an usual subject - 'To correct the current state of affairs'. The broad and inconclusive the subject is (or atleast for person like me with limited knowledge), the more it is invigorating.

What would it take for India to rise and shine, not for blessed few but for all Indians. Masses are to be lead. Is an individual like Gandhi the only solution ? Or people can stand together to make a force. But if it could happen on its own, with no one to lead, then why is not happening now ? If numbers were strength, then India could well be right at the top. Is it happening or country is sccumbing to demagoguery ?

I dont intend to conclude anything from here, instead leave options open for myself and you. Nehru wrote that Gandhi did not descend from anywhere, he had risen from amongst us. If Gandhi does not come again, then whats our chance ?